"I'm sorry. I've wronged you."
The guilt was in his voice, but I'd already seen straight through the smugness in his eyes and the corner of his mouth.
Ella and my mother rushed to lift him up, but he refused to get off his knees.
Ella spun on me and shouted, "Sid, that's enough."
"None of this would've happened if you weren't so hell-bent on always winning. And besides, Elmer didn't burn down your restaurant. Why take it out on him?"
"Both of you, stop yelling at him. He's already miserable enough."
"It's just a few minutes on my knees. It won't kill me."
"If it takes the edge off his anger, I'll kneel until my knees give out. It's worth it."
Meaning: unless I told him to get up first, he wouldn't dare.
My mother had figured that out too, so without a second thought she slapped me across the face.
"Enough! If you want to hate someone, hate me!"
"None of this has anything to do with him. Do you really have to make a scene until everyone passing by has a good laugh at us?"
That slap knocked loose every last hope I had left for her.
Elmer scrambled to his feet and stepped between us. "Mom, what are you doing!"
"He's already suffered enough…"
"He's suffered? And you think I've had it easy?"
"Please don't be like this. You're making me out to be some kind of despicable person."
That was when Ella suddenly started retching from morning sickness.
My mother froze for a beat, like something had just clicked.
I let out a bitter laugh. "What else could you possibly not be satisfied with?"
"From the day you walked into my home, you stole my mother's love. Then you stole my girlfriend."
"You used depression as a weapon to push my mother into burning down my restaurant, and you got my girlfriend pregnant. Tell me, where exactly are you still unsatisfied?"
Ella flinched hard. She'd never expected me to have uncovered her secret too, that she was carrying Elmer's child.
I couldn't find the courage to stay there another second. I turned and walked out with the heaviest heart I'd ever carried.
I didn't go back to that suffocating house. I was ready to cut ties for good, on schedule.
I spent the night in a hotel. I didn't sleep at all.
By the time the sky lightened the next morning, I dragged myself, exhausted, to the bank to withdraw money for my employees' wages.
But the last fifteen thousand dollars in my account was gone.
And right then, my mother called.
"I took the money out of your account to give to Elmer. He wants to open a bubble tea shop, doesn't he?"
"He needs to buy tables and chairs and supplies…"
"Mom!!!"
I shouted into the phone, panic rising in me.
"That fifteen thousand was everything I had. I need it to pay my employees."
"Why would you take my money without asking me first?"
"Have you ever once thought about me…"
"What are you shouting for?"
"It's only fifteen thousand. Does that really make you this angry?"
"If you don't have money for wages, go borrow it from your friends."
"One way or another, Elmer's bubble tea shop is going to open without a hitch."
She hung up before I could get another word in.
A moment later, Elmer called, taunting me.
"Big brother. Well, well, well."
"Last night I just casually mentioned I didn't have money to buy tea equipment, and that cheap mother of yours went and stole your money to give to me."
"You want to know what I was doing right then? I was sleeping with your fiancée."
"Ha ha ha. I told you, didn't I. Your father drove my father to his grave, so I swore I'd tear your family apart until nothing was left standing."
"You know what? Your mother's really useless. She couldn't even get the fire going. In the end I had to help her out, poured on plenty of kerosene…"
"South Harbor Street. Come on down. My bubble tea shop opens today."
"Your mother sold your house to fund my shop."
I clenched my fists so hard they ached, and I carried an unending flood of hatred all the way to South Harbor Street.
Elmer stood at the entrance, welcoming the lion dance troupe and their blessings.
He was smiling, so happy. And so was my mother.
It was in that moment that I finally chose to sever all ties.
I took out my phone and dialed the police.
"Hello. I want to report a crime."
"Someone deliberately set fire to my restaurant…"
