That night, after Lily was in bed, I finally listened to the voicemails.
The first was my mother, crying. “Sarah, please, you have to call me back. I can’t—I can’t breathe. Your father is so angry. We need to talk about this. We need to fix this. Please, honey, please call me back.”
The second was my father, not crying but cold. “This is unacceptable, Sarah. You will call your mother back tonight and you will apologize for this stunt. We raised you to respect your parents, and this behavior is disgraceful. Call. Now.”
The third was Danny. “Sarah, it’s me. Look, I don’t know the whole story, but Mom and Dad are a mess. They’re talking about losing their house, about having nowhere to go. I know you’re mad, but they’re still our parents. Can we talk? Just call me back. Please.”
I deleted all three messages and blocked the numbers they’d called from.
Marcus was right. We needed a lawyer.
Monday morning, I called Jennifer at 9:00 a.m. sharp. She remembered me from college—we’d been in the same dorm, and had stayed loosely in touch over the years.
“Sarah! It’s been forever. What’s going on?”
I explained the situation as concisely as I could—the three years of payments, the missed birthday party, the conversation with my father, my decision to cut them off, and now the threat of them moving back to Portland to “repair the relationship.”
Jennifer was quiet for a moment after I finished. “Okay. First of all, you did the right thing. Second, yes, you need documentation. Can you forward me all the texts, emails, voicemails? Anything they’ve sent since you cut them off?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’m also going to draft a cease and desist letter. Not a restraining order yet, but a clear legal boundary stating that they are not to contact you, your husband, your daughter, your workplaces, or your daughter’s school. If they violate it, then we pursue a restraining order.”
“Is that really necessary?”
“Sarah, they threatened to show up at your apartment uninvited. Your sister-in-law is warning you they’re planning to move back to Portland specifically to wear you down. Yes, it’s necessary. People who feel entitled to your money and your time often don’t respond to polite boundaries. They respond to legal ones.”
“Okay,” I said, feeling the weight of it settle over me. This was really happening. I was really doing this.
“One more thing,” Jennifer said. “The car. You said it’s in your name?”
