And next to each one, he clicked: CANCEL. CANCEL. CANCEL.
Click, another click, another click… as if he were cutting his arteries.
‘Wait,’ I grabbed the back of the chair. ‘Are you… are you cancelling all of this?’
‘Yes.’
One word. Guillotine.
‘You mean… the parents’ loan? My sister’s business? Bella’s activities? Everything?’
He still didn’t turn around. His jaw was clenched, his shoulders tense, as if carved from cold stone. My brain flicked through all the versions of Thomas I knew: kind, conflict-averse, overly apologetic. None of them matched the man who was now deleting payments as if these people had stolen his life.
‘This is… sudden,’ I breathed — the understatement of the century.
He exhaled and finally leaned back in his chair. Not relaxed. Just… done.
He looked up at me. Red. Furious. Ashamed.
‘It should have been me,’ he said. ‘I should have protected her. I should have spoken up. I let them treat you like that for years. I let them say that in front of Mia. But tonight? They said it to my face. And I froze.’
His voice faltered on the words I froze. My stomach knotted. I wanted to hug him, to comfort him, to do something. But he wasn’t finished.
‘Noah shouldn’t have been the one to defend her,’ he continued. ‘He shouldn’t have felt obligated to do so. It’s my fault. And I’ll never let it happen again.’
He turned to the screen and clicked Delete Map.
” You have no idea,‘ he said, ’how many times I told myself I was helping them. How many times I told myself it was temporary. That they would appreciate it. That I was doing the right thing. They never considered it help. And tonight, they proved it to me.”
I sat down on the edge of the table because my legs weren’t ready for such an emotional earthquake.
‘So you’re… done?’ I asked quietly.
He nodded.
‘Enough of sacrificing our children’s experiences so my mother can tell Mia she’s a mistake. Enough of paying Melanie’s bills so she can mock my daughter. Enough of being the wallet they beat when they’re bored.’
I swallowed. ‘Thomas… They’re going to explode.’
‘Let them explode,’ he replied. ‘They’ve been doing it to us for years.’
He pressed the final confirmation button, and the page reloaded as if he had exorcised a demon.
And, of course, the phone rang.
‘My mother,’ he said.
Of course.
He answered and put the call on speakerphone — because, apparently, we were entering an era of radical transparency.
‘Thomas!’ she cried immediately. ‘We just got a notification: our loan payment has been deleted! Did the bank make a mistake? What’s going on?’
‘No,’ he replied calmly. ‘I deleted it.’
Silence. Then a sound as if she had been slapped invisibly.
‘What do you mean, you deleted it? You can’t just—’
‘I can.’
‘But… your father is panicking!’
‘Pay it yourselves,’ he said. ‘I won’t be doing it anymore.’
‘Are you kidding? After everything we’ve done for you? We’re counting on you! We need this!’
I think my eyebrows touched the ceiling.
Thomas didn’t move. ‘I have my own family.’
‘WE are your family!’ she shouted. ‘It’s because of her, isn’t it? She’s turning you against us. She’s manipulating you! She’s corrupting you!’
‘Stop,’ he interrupted. ‘It’s not Emily. It’s me.’
I could have kissed him. Right there. Right then. In the middle of the office. With his mother screaming into the speakerphone like a faulty fire alarm.
‘You told my daughter,’ he continued in a louder voice, ‘that she was a “fraud”. You rejected her gift. You humiliated her.’
‘Oh, come on,’ Sharon spat. ‘She’s six years old. She’ll forget.’
‘Maybe,’ he replied in a cutting tone. ‘But Noah won’t forget. And neither will I.’
She went into banshee mode.
‘You’re being dramatic! You’re destroying this family!’
‘You’ve already destroyed it,’ he said. ‘You just didn’t expect me to notice.’
He hung up. He hung up. Thomas, the man who apologised to telemarketers, saying he wasn’t interested, had just hung up on his mother.
Before I could say anything, the phone rang again. Melanie.
‘Oh no,’ I whispered. ‘Level two.’ .
He answered.
‘What the hell, Thomas?’ she yelled. ‘Mum just called in tears. Are you cutting her off? And me too? How am I going to pay for Bella’s lessons?’
‘That’s not my problem,’ he said.
‘You can’t do that! All for a joke?’
‘She insulted my daughter,’ he replied, ‘and you supported her.’
‘Come on,’ Melanie moaned. ‘It was funny. Everyone thinks Mia doesn’t look like—’
‘Don’t finish that sentence,’ he said. ‘Don’t finish it at all.’
She finished it anyway:
‘You don’t even know she’s yours.’
The silence that followed was so thick you could almost suffocate.
‘It’s over,’ he said. ‘That’s final.’
‘You’re throwing your family away!’ she cried.
‘No,’ he replied. ‘I’m protecting mine.’
He put the phone down again, then leaned back, covered his face with his hands and exhaled as if he had been holding his breath for six years.