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Oh. My. God.
She’d finally done it. She was threatening to cut me off from family funds.
Was I surprised? No. I was only surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. After coasting the past few years on her goodwill, I guess I assumed it would go on forever.
How wrong I was.
“How can I become a better person if you take everything away from me?” I said.
“Your father began from nothing,” Mom said. “You don’t need a lot of money to be a good man.”
She got up and moved for the door.
My heart was in my throat. I was watching my mom take everything from me. My inheritance, my future. Everything.
“You can’t do this,” I said. “Dad left that money to me!”
“He left it in my care until you came of age. That should have been when you turned twenty-one. Instead, you partied and got kicked out of one university after another. Now you do nothing but party. I’m sorry. But this is necessary. With time, you’ll see it was the right thing to do. At least, I hope you’ll come to see it that way.”
She reached for the door.
“Wait,” I said. “There must be something I can do. Some way I can prove to you I’m not a loser.”
“I never said you were a loser. You have the makings of a great man. Like your father. But you’re so far from becoming him. You’ve taken the wrong path and I can’t let you take the family down with you.”
“I won’t take the family down. I swear, this time I’ll do as you say. I won’t party anymore.”
“I don’t mind if you party, although I would prefer for you to socialize with more… quality people than this. It’s not what you do that’s the problem. It’s what you don’t do.”
Her wedding ring clinked against the metal door handle. She never took it off—even fifteen years after her husband died.
And if she passed through that door, there would be no getting her to change her mind.
“There must be something I can do,” I said. “Some way I can improve and change and become the kind of son you want.”
She hesitated. I seized on the opportunity and took a step forward.
“Give me time,” I said. “I know you’ve given me a lot already but give me one last chance to prove myself. I’ll do whatever you want. I know I’ve been wasting my time. I know I need to change. I can’t go on like this forever. Just tell me what to do.”
She thought for a moment before turning to look at me. The icy business mask slipped. Now she looked at me with the caring eyes of a mother.
“Sort your life out, Dyrel,” she said. “Reduce the parties. No more crazy raves. No more wasting your time. You don’t have to manage the company but you do have to do something useful with your time. Find a cause or a job or something you love doing. But most of all, you need to find a good woman.”
Ah, yes. The “good woman” Mom always talked about. “Men are nothing without the right partner supporting them,” she used to say. Clearly, her opinion hadn’t changed.
“If I can find the right woman to be with, and stop partying so much, will you reconsider your decision?” I said.
She was on the fence. She battled with her response. I needed to give her a little more.
“Give me one month,” I said. “Let me begin as I mean to go on.”
She searched my face. This was hard for her.
“Please,” I said.
There were few things a child could do that their parents wouldn’t forgive. I might be a partier and a layabout but I’d never hurt anyone or done anything that would leave a black mark on the family name. And I never would. I wasn’t made that way.
“Fine,” Mom said. “You have one month beginning from today. Find a good woman and get your life straightened out. I don’t expect you to change everything completely. But I do expect improvements.”
