Chapter 4 - Shifting Tides
By mid-afternoon, the desperation from Mexico had escalated from text messages to furious voicemails via internet-calling apps. When we returned home, Ellie went to her room to build a fort out of blankets. Brian finally put his phone on speaker and called his mother back.
Carol answered on the first ring, her voice screeching across the miles. "Brian! What on earth is going on?! We are trapped at the front desk! The hotel manager is saying we have to provide a new credit card for the remaining four nights, or they will evict us! My card doesn't have that kind of limit!"
"Hello, Mom," Brian said, his voice smooth and detached. "I know. I locked the card."
There was a sharp gasp on the other end. "You did what? Why would you do that to your own family? We are on vacation!"
"Correction," Brian said. "You are on a vacation that I paid for, using a passport you stole from my nine-year-old daughter to manipulate her."
"I told you, it was an accident!" Carol lied defensively. "It fell into my bag!"
"Don't lie to me anymore, Mom," Brian interrupted, his tone turning ice-cold. "You admitted it on the phone last night. You wanted to punish Ellie because she didn't want to hug you. You targeted a child. You ruined her dream trip. You made her cry for hours. So, consider this your lesson in consequences."
George’s voice suddenly boomed in the background, having grabbed the phone from Carol. "Brian, you can't leave your parents stranded in a foreign country! This is illegal! This is financial elder abuse!"
Brian actually laughed, a sharp, dark sound. "No, George. Financial abuse is letting your adult son pay your condo fees while you look down your nose at his wife and child. You have your own retirement accounts. Janelle has a job. Figure it out. You have until 5:00 PM to check out, or find a way to pay for it yourselves."
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"Brian, wait—"
Brian hung up. He looked at me, a massive weight visibly lifting from his shoulders. "That felt incredibly good," he admitted.
