Chapter 5: Twenty-Five Thousand

"Mother," Levi said.

He stood up from the chair in his shorts.

"Put your trousers on, Levi," said Carolyn.

She did not raise her voice.

I pulled my dress over my head and zipped it myself, which took three tries.

Levi dressed with his back to us.

Carolyn opened her handbag, took out an envelope, and held it toward me between two fingers.

"I wrote this on Tuesday, before all this," she said. "I believe in being direct."

I opened it.

It was a cashier's check made out to Reyna Ybarra for twenty-five thousand dollars.

"For a fresh start somewhere that is not Dallas," Carolyn said. "Oaxaca is lovely in March."

"I'm from Oak Cliff, Mrs. Kellum."

"I know where you're from."

I tore the check in half.

Then I tore the halves in half and held out the pieces.

She did not take them, so I let them fall on her camel coat and drop to the floor.

"Your gown is on the rack," I said.

"I'd like it taken in by Saturday."

"Tatum's has two other seamstresses," I said. "The next best charges ninety dollars an hour."

"Neither of them is you."

"No," I said. "They aren't."

I walked to the rack, lifted the plum bag off it, and hung it over her arm.

"You will never work in this city again," Carolyn said.

"I've worked in it for eight years. You never once looked at my face."

"Mother," Levi said, from the door, and it was the quietest word I ever heard him say.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Dallas Called My Ex Rich and Barren, So I Found Out He Was Neither from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.