And I hung up.
An hour later, Vanessa was screaming at me over the phone.
“What’s wrong with you, Eleanor? Are you crazy? It’s the least you can do after the scene you made at our wedding.”
“I didn’t make a scene,” I responded calmly. “I just went to congratulate my son.”
“Your son doesn’t want you there,” she yelled. “Get it through your head. You are a burden to him.”
A burden. After everything I had been done, after all the sacrifices, I was a burden.
“You’re right, Vanessa,” I told her. “I am a burden. That’s why I’ve decided to free him from that burden forever.”
“What do you mean by that?” she asked, her voice changing tone.
“I mean, I’m retiring. Julian no longer has a mother.”
I hung up the phone and turned it off. It was time to start my new life.
The next day, I hired a moving company and packed my most important things. The rest I donated to charity. I sold my modest house in the neighborhood where I had raised Julian and moved into a five-star hotel in the city center.
Not because I couldn’t buy another house, but because I wanted time to decide exactly what I was going to do with the rest of my life.
Arthur visited me at the hotel that first week.
“Eleanor, are you sure you want to do this?” he asked as he reviewed the papers I had given him.
“I’ve been sure since the moment Julian looked at me with contempt at the door of that venue,” I replied. “That boy thinks I’m a poor, pathetic old woman who depends on him. It’s time for him to know the truth.”
The papers Arthur held in his hands were property transfer documents, bank statements, and something Julian had never seen: the deed to the house he lived in.
The house he thought he had bought with his mortgage was actually purchased by me. I had paid the down payment. I had co-signed the loan. I had been silently paying the mortgage for years so he could maintain his standard of living.
But that wasn’t all. The company where Julian worked as an engineer also had a secret.
The owner, Mr. Harrison, was a business partner of my father’s from Europe. When Julian graduated, I had spoken to Mr. Harrison to give my son a chance. Not only did he get him the job, but for years, he had been receiving reports on his performance.
Julian was a mediocre employee who had kept his job more because of my influence than his talent.
Vanessa also had no idea who she had really married. Her brand-new husband, the successful engineer she bragged so much about, was actually the adopted son of a woman who could buy and sell his entire family without blinking.
While they were enjoying their honeymoon, spending the wedding gift money from Vanessa’s family, I was at the hotel spa, relaxing for the first time in decades.
It had been years since I had allowed myself this kind of luxury. I had always been so busy working for Julian, worrying about Julian, living for Julian, that I had forgotten to live for myself.
It was during a relaxing massage that I made my next decision. Not only was I going to retire from being a mother, but I was also going to make sure that Julian and Vanessa understood exactly what they had lost.
When Julian and Vanessa returned from their honeymoon, the problems began.
First, it was the utility company that cut off their electricity because they hadn’t paid the bill.
Julian called me furious. “Mom, why didn’t you pay the electricity bill for my house?”
“Because it’s not my house,” I replied calmly. “And because I am no longer your mom.”
“What are you talking about? Of course, you’re my mom.”
“No,” I said. “Mothers are invited to their sons’ weddings. I was not invited. Therefore, I am not your mother.”
Julian was silent for a moment. “Mom, don’t be ridiculous. It was just a wedding.”
“Exactly,” I replied. “Just a wedding. The most important wedding of your life, and you decided I had no place in it. Now you live with the consequences of that decision.”
“But you’ve always paid my utilities,” he shouted. “It’s your obligation.”
“My obligation?” I repeated, feeling the anger rise in my chest. “Julian, for 28 years, I fulfilled obligations that were not mine. That’s over.”
I hung up and dialed Mr. Harrison’s number.
