“Am I?”
He sighed as if I were exhausting him.
Then his phone buzzed.
Melissa’s followed.
Brian checked his screen first. His face changed.
“Why was my card declined?”
Melissa grabbed her phone. “Mine too.”
They both looked at me.
I said nothing.
Brian’s jaw tightened. “Dad.”
“Yes?”
“What did you do?”
“I canceled the cards.”
Melissa straightened. “You can’t do that.”
“They were my cards.”
“We had an arrangement.”
“No,” I said. “You had access. Access is not an arrangement.”
Brian stepped toward me. “Turn them back on.”
“No.”
His voice lowered. “Don’t play games with me this morning.”
I almost smiled.
Not because it was funny.
Because, for the first time in years, his anger did not frighten me. It revealed him.
“I’m not playing games,” I said. “I’m ending them.”
Melissa’s eyes sharpened. She was always faster than Brian. He reacted with anger. She reacted with calculation.
