Out of Time: The Family That Lost Me novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Colt's Big Night
Mal reads a group chat on her cousin's phone, cancels every payment to her family at their celebration dinner, and learns her father believes she stopped sending money two years ago.
My cousin's phone lit up on my couch cushion while she was in my shower.
The preview said: "Celebration dinner tonight for Colt's grades!"
My brother's grades.
Nobody had told me there was a dinner.
In four months of my cousin sleeping on my couch, I had never touched her phone.
I picked it up.
She had no passcode.
The chat had four members: Dad, Mom, my brother, my cousin.
Not me.
My brother had written: "Just us tonight. Don't tell Mal."
My mother answered: "Of course not. She's worked so hard lately, let her rest."
Then Colt: "She's petty about dinners anyway. Fought her own cousin over an apple when she was nine and still brings it up."
Dad had answered with a thumbs-up.
My cousin had written: "Don't worry, I'll keep her home. She's in pajamas by six."
I scrolled up one more screen.
Mom: "Did her Friday transfer land?"
Colt: "Yep. Rent's covered. Dinner's on her, basically lol."
Since I was twenty-one, I had paid for these people.
Seven hundred dollars a month to Mom for the mortgage.
Six hundred and fifty to Colt's landlord.
Two hundred for Dad's pills.
Twice a year, twenty-five hundred for Colt's tuition, sent to Mom, because the school portal was in his name and she handled it.
I worked every weekend relief shift my clinic had to afford it.
I took screenshots of the whole chat.
Then I put the phone back exactly where it had been.
The shower stopped.
Shelby Gaines, my cousin, came out with a towel on her head and red curls falling out of it, grinning.
"You're home early! Biscuit got into the dishwasher again, I rescued him."
She dropped onto the couch beside me and picked up her phone.
"Aunt Di called while you were out. She wants to know if you're eating. I told her you live on string cheese."
She laughed.
"She asks for a report on you every Sunday. She just wants to know you're okay."
"That's nice of her," I said.
"I'm meeting a friend for dinner. Don't wait up!"
She kissed my cheek on her way to my bedroom to get dressed.
I did not move until the front door clicked behind her.
Then I got my keys.
Tavola Verde had a big front window, and I stood outside it for a full minute.
Dad, Mom, Colt and Shelby sat at a round table with a cake in the middle.
The icing said "Congrats Colt" in blue.
My mother was laughing with her hand on my father's sleeve.
I walked in.
The hostess asked if I had a reservation.
"I'm with the family," I said.
I stopped at the edge of the table.
Colt's grin went out first.
Shelby's face went white.
My mother recovered fastest.
"Mallory! What a lovely surprise. Sit, sit. We were just about to call you."
"Were you?"
"Of course we were." She turned. "Shelby, didn't we say we'd call her?"
Shelby opened her mouth and nothing came out.
I took out my phone and set it on the white tablecloth, next to the bread basket.
"I read the chat," I said.
"That's private," Mom said.
"It had my name in it."
I opened my banking app.
"Seven hundred a month to Mom. Cancelled."
I tapped, and the phone chimed.
"Six-fifty a month to Colt's landlord. Cancelled."
Another chime.
Colt sat up. "Wait, that's my rent."
"Dad's pharmacy. That one I'm keeping, Dad. But I'm paying the pharmacy myself, not through anyone at this table."
"Mallory, sit down," Mom said, in her church voice. "You're making a scene."
She turned to Dad. "Russ, say something."
My father looked at his plate and said nothing.
"Colt, you called me petty."
I put the phone in my pocket.
"So I'm going to be petty."
Shelby stood up. "Mal, please, I can explain."
"Your bag is in my hallway. The door code changed."
"Wow," Colt said. "Over a group chat?"
"After everything this family has done for you," Mom said.
"Name one thing," I said.
She did not.
I looked at the cake.
"Dinner's on you, Colt," I said. "Basically, lol."
Mom's mouth went thin.
I turned and walked out.
The parking lot was cold, and my hands were shaking so hard I dropped my keys twice.
My phone buzzed.
It was Abram Castellan, my boss, who owned the clinic.
"Can you cover Saturday? I know it's your fourth in a row. Say no if you want."
I typed: "Yes."
I looked at it.
I deleted it.
I typed: "No."
I sent it before I could think.
Boots hit the pavement behind me.
My father came out of the restaurant without his coat, one hand pressed against his chest.
"Mal. Wait."
He caught my elbow.
His voice was low, and he kept looking back at the window.
"Diane told me you stopped sending money two years ago."
I stared at him.
"Dad," I said, "I sent it last Friday."
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