Instead, he decided to leave with a friend.
Two days afterward, he phoned her in tears, saying he had no money to buy food. Abigail had groceries delivered directly to his door, but sent no cash.
When he requested that she cover another payment on his truck, she immediately refused.
“I need that truck to work,” Spencer argued on the phone.
“Then it needs to demonstrate that it earns more than it costs,” Abigail responded.
Spencer eventually returned the truck to the lender.
For several weeks, he traveled across town on public buses, embarrassed whenever he encountered former business clients.
Every lengthy journey reminded him of the comforts he had maintained through borrowing and continuous deception.
The bank collectors continued calling Abigail repeatedly as well.
One especially persistent collector attempted to persuade her into accepting a financial settlement for the sake of her family.
“For my family’s sake, I intend to tell the complete truth,” she answered firmly. “The signature appearing on those documents is not mine.”
She ended the call while her legs shook beneath her.
Before everything happened, she would have paid almost anything to prevent a public scandal, but this time, she allowed the shame to remain with the person responsible for creating it.
Spencer sold two commercial printers, surrendered the delivery van, and formally shut down his printing business. He relocated to a small, inexpensive apartment in the Oakridge district and began creating basic menus, business cards, and advertisements using a borrowed laptop.
He did not transform immediately.
Some difficult weeks were spent blaming his mother for everything, while during others his overwhelming sh@me made conversation almost impossible.
During therapy, he eventually admitted that for years he had exploited his father’s early death, his own sickness, and his business failures to excuse every form of emotional man!pulation toward his mother.
Abigail also confronted her own share of responsibility with her counselor.
After becoming widowed when Spencer was fifteen, she had attempted to compensate for every missing piece in his life. She settled his debts before he even requested help and transformed his personal difficulties into emergencies of her own.
“What might have happened if your son had been forced to close his very first business by himself?” the psychologist asked during one session.
“Maybe he would have learned how to manage his own responsibilities,” Abigail admitted quietly.
“And what did he learn when you continually rescued him?” the psychologist continued.
