Chapter 2 - THE TWINS WEREN’T THE EXPENSIVE PART
Megan called me that evening.
Not Daniel.
Me.
“Can we talk?”
Her voice had lost its entitlement.
“What about?”
“The money.”
Of course.
I was still at the hospital, sitting in an empty break room after another long shift.
“I’m listening.”
“Daniel told me you’re refusing to help.”
“No. Daniel promised my paycheck without asking me.”
“He said you could afford it.”
“I can afford lots of things I don’t buy.”
She exhaled sharply.
“You don’t understand what newborn twins cost.”
“Diapers, formula, medical appointments, childcare.”
I paused.
“I understand.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“Punishing us.”
I leaned back.
“Megan, how much do you actually need every month?”
Silence.
“Daniel said forty-five hundred.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Another pause.
“Maybe three thousand.”
“For the twins?”
“Yes.”
Her answer came too fast.
I spent my career in healthcare analytics. Numbers were how I survived twelve-hour spreadsheets and fourteen-hour hospital days.
Three thousand dollars in additional monthly newborn expenses was possible.
But something felt wrong.
“Send me your budget.”
“What?”
“If you need emergency financial support, send me the numbers.”
“That’s humiliating.”
“So is having your brother assign half my paycheck to you.”
She hung up.
That should have been the end.
Instead, fifteen minutes later, my phone buzzed.
A message from Megan’s husband, Eric.
PLEASE DON’T SEND HER MONEY.
I stared.
Then another.
DANIEL DOESN’T KNOW THE FULL STORY.
I called him.
Eric answered quietly.
“Where are you?”
“Outside.”
“Why?”
“So Megan can’t hear me.”
My pulse shifted.
“What’s going on?”
He was silent long enough to worry me.
Finally:
“We can afford the babies.”
I closed my eyes.
“How comfortably?”
“Not comfortably. But we’re okay.”
“Then why does she need forty-five hundred dollars a month?”
Eric whispered:
“Because she owes someone money.”
“How much?”
“Almost sixty thousand.”
My posture changed.
“For what?”
“I only found out last week.”
A door opened in the background.
Eric lowered his voice.
“She’s been trading online.”
“Stocks?”
“Options. Crypto. Something with leveraged accounts.”
I stared through the break-room window.
Daniel had told me Megan was drowning because she had newborn twins.
No.
Megan was drowning because she had gambled with investments she didn’t understand.
“Does Daniel know?”
“Some of it.”
That answer mattered.
“How much does he know?”
“He knows she lost money.”
“Does he know sixty thousand?”
“I don’t think so.”
Then Eric said something worse.
“She used money from the babies’ education accounts.”
My blood went cold.
“The twins are newborns.”
“My parents gave each of them ten thousand dollars.”
“And it’s gone?”
“Yes.”
I rubbed my forehead.
“Why are you telling me?”
“Because if you send her money without conditions, she’ll keep trading.”
That changed everything.
Daniel wasn’t saving his sister from newborn expenses.
He was protecting her from consequences.
Exactly as his family always had.
Then Eric added:
“There’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“Megan didn’t ask Daniel for half your paycheck.”
I became very still.
“Who did?”
May you like
“Your mother-in-law.”
And suddenly Sunday lunch felt much more important.
