Chapter 4 - The Landlord's Notice
The silence that followed was absolute. It hung in the air like ozone before a lightning strike.
Darcy opened the folder with shaking hands. His eyes darted across the printed bursar invoice, where the status clearly read: *AUTOMATIC WITHDRAWAL TERMINATED BY ACCOUNT HOLDER. OUTSTANDING BALANCE: $18,420.00.*
"You canceled her tuition?" Darcy choked out, looking up at me as if I were a stranger who had pulled a weapon on him. "Three months before she walks across the stage? You're ruining her life!"
"I am stepping aside so her actual family can support her," I said. "You have made it painfully clear that parenting Shay is exclusively your jurisdiction. Funding her education falls under that umbrella. The bursar accepts cashier's checks, major credit cards, and direct wire transfers. I suggest you log into your account tonight and settle the balance."
"You know damn well I don't have eighteen thousand dollars sitting around!" Darcy bellowed, slamming the folder down onto the desk.
"Then I suppose you will have to take out a personal loan," I replied without blinking. "Or perhaps Shay can apply for an emergency student loan. Thousands of college students do it every single day."
"I can't take out loans!" Shay shrieked, tears of genuine panic now streaming down her cheeks. "The interest rates are insane! I was supposed to graduate debt-free! You promised Dad I would graduate debt-free!"
"I made promises to a family," I said, locking eyes with her. "You informed me that we are not family. You cannot unilaterally sever the emotional bonds of kinship while demanding the financial dividends. That isn't how the world works, Shay."
Before Shay could launch into another tirade, her phone began to buzz furiously on the palm of her hand. An incoming call lit up the screen: *Highland Park Leasing Office*.
Shay stared at the screen, her breath hitching. She answered and pressed it to her ear with trembling fingers. "H-hello?"
Darcy and I watched in silence as Shay listened to the voice on the other end. Her posture collapsed, her knees buckling slightly until she had to brace herself against the doorframe.
"What?" she whispered, her voice cracking. "No... no, there must be a mistake. I live there. My lease doesn't end until August."
A pause. The muffled voice of a leasing agent drifted through the speaker, crisp, professional, and unyielding.
"I can't move out by Thursday!" Shay cried out, her voice rising into an hysterical wail. "All my furniture is there! My clothes, my decor, everything! You can't just break the lease!"
Another brief pause from the leasing manager, followed by a sentence that caused Shay’s entire body to go limp.
"The primary leaseholder, Claire Montgomery, submitted an official early-lease termination buyout this morning and paid the requisite penalty fee," the leasing agent's voice was clearly audible in the quiet room. "As an authorized occupant with no financial standing on the agreement, you are required to surrender the keys and vacate the premises within forty-eight hours. Failure to do so will result in immediate removal of personal property by building management. Have a good evening, Ms. Miller."
The call clicked dead.
Shay looked down at the phone as if it had turned into a venomous snake. She looked at Darcy, whose mouth was opening and closing soundlessly, completely paralyzed by the sudden collapse of his daughter's comfortable reality.
"My apartment..." Shay whimpered, looking back at me with raw terror. "You gave up my apartment?"
"It was never your apartment, Shay," I said mildly. "It was a luxury two-bedroom loft that I leased in my name because you refused to live in the dorms or find roommates you didn't deem 'annoying.' I paid two thousand four hundred dollars a month so you could have a granite kitchen and an en-suite bathroom. Since you do not view me as family, I see no reason to maintain a luxury crash pad for an ungrateful acquaintance."
"You monster!" Shay screamed, lunging forward, her hands clawing the air toward me.
"Shay, stop!" Darcy roared, grabbing his daughter by the waist and pulling her back before she could touch me.
"She ruined everything!" Shay fought against her father's grip, kicking and sobbing uncontrollably. "My car! My school! My home! She threw me out on the street!"
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"Nobody threw you on the street," I noted, watching the spectacle with detached clarity. "You are standing inside my five-bedroom home. You have a roof over your head tonight. But make no mistake: your gilded ride is officially over."
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