The roof still leaked, Carl still ignored it, and I had just dragged the ladder from the garage when the doorbell rang. I wasn’t ready for visitors—especially not my brother, standing there with hollow eyes and a request that would drain our savings and break my heart just a week later.
The morning rain had passed, but the roof continued its steady drip over the same corner of the hallway rug—the one worn thin by Carl’s muddy boots last spring.
I’d reminded him countless times that week, “The roof won’t fix itself,” and each time he’d given me a distracted forehead kiss, mumbled, “I’ll get to it, babe,” and dashed out the door, twenty minutes late, as usual.
So I stayed home, took a personal day from the library, and slipped into my “chore armor”—old gray sweatpants stained with bleach and Carl’s oversized flannel. I stepped around a loose rake and Sadie’s abandoned soccer cleats as I hauled the ladder down the hallway.
Then the doorbell rang.
Visitors were rare here, especially on a weekday. I wiped my hands and opened the door.
“Evan?” I blinked.
He swayed slightly, holding his baseball cap like it was fragile, his face pale, eyes sunken with bruised shadows, hair sticking up from constant running of his hands.
“Hey, Annie,” he said softly, as if testing the word.
I stepped aside instinctively. “Come in.”
He didn’t look around, just sank onto the sofa’s edge like he might spring back up at any moment.
“I’m in trouble, sis,” he said flatly, his voice cracking.
I sank into the chair opposite him, heart racing.
“What kind of trouble?”
“The business.” He rubbed his hands. “The landscaping company… it’s not doing well. It’s drowning. I expanded too fast, took out loans, bought trucks, hired more people. Then the dry season came, clients slowed, payments got late… I’m behind. If I don’t make a balloon payment by month’s end… it’s over.”
“Evan…” I sighed his name.
He leaned forward, elbows on knees. “I just need help. You’re the only one I trust.”
I felt the weight settle in my chest.
“How much?” I whispered.
“One-fifty.”
I recoiled. “One hundred fifty thousand?”
He nodded, desperate. “I know it’s insane. But I’ll pay it back. Every cent, with interest. I promise.”
My mind raced—Sadie’s college fund, the emergency savings, the safety Carl and I built over the years. But Evan… my baby brother… Mom always called him “the dreamer.” I believed in him.
“I’ll transfer it by Friday,” I said, heart heavy.
He hugged me tight, trembling. “Thank you,” he whispered, and for a brief moment, I thought maybe I’d done the right thing.
One week later, at Lulu’s Café, Tammy pulled out her phone mid-story. “You have to see this,” she said.
The screen showed Evan, grinning like a schoolboy, arm around a woman in a tight red dress, her nails matching, a massive diamond on her finger.
I felt the coffee sour in my mouth. “That’s your friend’s fiancé?”
Tammy nodded. “They’ve been dating five months. He bought the ring himself. Platinum. Can you believe it?”
I couldn’t. I remembered Evan’s words: “I just need help.” But he hadn’t needed help—he needed a stage, and I’d held the curtain open.
I drove straight to his house. The yard looked tired, littered with fast food wrappers and an Amazon box crushed near the steps. I knocked.
Evan opened the door slowly. “Annie?”
“We need to talk,” I said.
Inside, his living room was chaotic—takeout bags, half-eaten burritos, a stale mix of fries and perfume, and a pair of bent stilettos.
“You lied to me,” I said.
He flinched, avoiding my gaze. “It wasn’t… I didn’t plan to,” he stammered. “She made me feel seen. Her ex never gave her anything… I wanted her to feel special. But it was never enough.”
I sat, cold anger heavy in my chest. “So you used me.”
“No! I mean—yes. But I didn’t want to. I was desperate. My business is failing. I can’t think straight. But I can’t lose her. I love her.”
I looked at him—still my little brother, chasing love with money.
“Then let me show you who she really is,” I said.
We went to Oak & Ember, the town’s finest. He sat next to me, fidgeting, as the door opened. Out stepped the woman in the red dress—this time black heels—and a man in a navy suit. They laughed, kissed, and drove off. Evan’s face went pale, life drained from it.
“I’m sorry,” I said, hand on his shoulder.
“She told me I was the only one,” he whispered.
“She’s told a lot of men that. She plays a game,” I said.
“I loved her,” he admitted.
Back at his porch, I sat beside him. “I didn’t come for the money,” I said. “I came for my brother.”
“I was stupid.”
“You were in love.”
“I was in a trance.”
I held out my hand. “Time to wake up, Evan.”
He took it.