Chapter 5 - The Parasites Freeze
By Thursday afternoon, forty-eight hours after the incident at the apartment, the reality of his new existence began to crash down on Javier Campbell like a ton of bricks.
He and his mother were staying in a cheap, sixty-dollar-a-night motel near the airport. His luxury truck had been repossessed by the leasing agency after Chase Bank flagged his account for suspicious activity and froze his secondary lines of credit.
Inside room 114, the air conditioning rattled loudly.
Lydia sat on the stained floral bedspread, weeping loudly, holding an unlit cigarette. “This is a nightmare, Javier! The manager here says we have to pay for tonight by three o'clock or they’ll throw our bags into the alley! Call that girl! Call Vanessa!”
Javier sat at the small laminate desk, his hair uncombed, pacing back and forth on the carpet while holding his phone to his ear.
“Vanessa! Pick up! Please!” Javier begged into the receiver.
On the third ring, the line connected.
“Javier?” Vanessa’s voice came through, sounding distant and annoyed over the background noise of a high-end coffee shop. “Why are you calling me from a random number? Where are you?”
“Vanessa, baby, listen to me,” Javier pleaded, his voice trembling. “There’s been a temporary mix-up with the bank. Naomi froze my corporate access, but my lawyers are fixing it! I need you to send ten thousand dollars to my personal Venmo account right now so I can pay off the truck lease and secure a suite!”
A long, icy pause followed on the line.
“Ten thousand dollars?” Vanessa laughed—a sharp, cruel sound. “Javier, the real estate company just informed me that the Scottsdale listing was canceled because your wire transfer bounced! The landlord of my apartment building just served me an eviction warning because the rent check signed by Luminary Beauty was returned as fraudulent!”
“It’s just a delay, Vanessa!” Javier panicked. “Once the divorce settlement goes through, I’ll get half of her company! Millions of dollars!”
“Are you stupid, Javier?” Vanessa sneered. “I talked to a real estate attorney this morning. You signed a prenuptial agreement four years ago waiving all rights to Luminary Beauty! You don't own a single share of her company!”
Javier felt his stomach drop into a dark, bottomless pit. “W-what? How did you know about the prenup?”
“Because your wife’s attorney sent a copy of it to my real estate broker this morning!” Vanessa barked. “Along with a formal demand for $45,000 in unauthorized funds you spent on my apartment! If I don't move out by tomorrow, I’m being named as a co-defendant in a civil fraud lawsuit!”
“Vanessa, wait! I love you!” Javier cried out.
“Don't call me again, Javier. You’re broke, you’re unemployed, and you’re about to go to jail. Stay the hell away from me!”
Click.
The line went dead.
Javier stood frozen in the dingy motel room, the phone slipping from his sweaty palm and crashing against the floor.
Lydia jumped up from the bed, her eyes wide with terror. “What did she say?! What about my house in Mesa?! Did she pay the rent?!”
“There is no house, Mom!” Javier suddenly screamed, turning on his mother with pure, unadulterated fury. “There is no money! There is no Scottsdale villa! We have nothing!”
Lydia gasped, clutching her chest. “Don't you yell at me! I am your mother! I raised you!”
“You ruined my life!” Javier roared, tears of panic finally spilling over his cheeks. “If you hadn't slapped her brother over a damn piece of chicken, I would still be living in a penthouse! I would still be driving a fifty-thousand-dollar truck! I would still have millions of dollars at my fingertips! You ruined everything with your stupid, arrogant mouth!”
Lydia slapped her son across the face—the exact same way she had slapped my brother two nights before.
“Don't you dare talk to me like that, you ungrateful brat!” Lydia shrieked. “I did everything for you!”
Javier held his red cheek, staring at his mother with absolute disgust.
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For the first time in his life, he saw his mother for what she truly was: a toxic, entitled parasite who had driven away every good thing he had ever possessed.
And outside the window, the harsh Arizona sun continued to beat down on the pavement, completely indifferent to their downfall.
