Eighteen Years Of IOUs, One Day To Pay Them All Chapter 06

Eighteen Years Of IOUs, One Day To Pay Them All Chapter 06

I froze.

A childhood memory I had buried for years suddenly came back to me.

When I was in elementary school, our teacher once gave us an assignment to write about the meaning behind our names.

I went home excited and asked Mom about mine.

She was cleaning one of my brother’s toys at the time and barely looked up.

“We’d been hoping for a boy, and we’d already picked Rowan as the name. When you turned out to be a girl, I was so disappointed I didn’t bother choosing another one.”

No one in my family had ever once told me they liked my name.

Instead, they used the story to joke that I was the girl nobody had wanted.

Now, one simple compliment from a stranger I had just met sent a bittersweet ache through my

chest.

I lowered my head and whispered, “Thank you.”

Then I held the cup of hot cocoa in both hands and took a small sip.

The next day, I officially started working at the café on campus.

Around noon, I was wiping down the counter when my phone rang.

The caller ID said Mom.

I hesitated for two seconds before answering.

The moment I brought the phone to my ear, her sharp, accusing voice hit me.

“Rowan, tell me exactly where you are overseas.”

“Are you really sleeping with some rich older man and using his money to pay for school?”

The accusation was so baseless that my grip tightened around the cleaning cloth.

I didn’t bother arguing.

I simply hung up.

Before I had time to settle myself, my phone rang again.

This time it was Tessa.

She deliberately softened her voice, putting on a sweetness that sounded completely fake.

Rowan, Mom asked me to call and talk you into coming home.”

“And she said the $9,840 in the ledger only covered your basic expenses growing up. Clothes over the years, snacks, and all the other extras weren’t included. You still owe the family more money.”

I leaned against the counter, my voice flat and steady.

“Every expense I ever had was recorded in that ledger, one by one. There is nothing else.”

“The debt is settled. So are we. Don’t contact me again.”

The moment I finished speaking, my brother’s irritated voice came through in the background.

“Fine. Who cares if she comes back? One less mouth to feed, and one less person around getting on everyone’s nerves.”

The words didn’t hurt at all.

I hung up and blocked all of their numbers.

That afternoon, when I arrived for my shift and pushed open the café door, I saw Maya Pierce-the girl who had given me hot cocoa at the welcome reception-organizing the work counter.

She immediately waved when she saw me.

“Rowan, you’re here! Let me introduce you. This is my brother, Elliot Pierce. He’s an

upperclassman in our economics program.”

Elliot set down the cloth he had been using to clean the espresso machine and gave me a warm nod.

I hadn’t realized the café manager was Maya’s brother, and I felt a little awkward.

After hesitating, I ended up telling them what had happened with my family.

I expected them to think less of me.

Instead, Elliot immediately adjusted my schedule.

“You’ve got a heavy course load. On days you have evening classes, I’ll only schedule you for

morning shifts. That way work won’t interfere with school.”

Gratitude flooded through me, and I thanked him several times.

In my economics class that afternoon, the professor lectured on exchange value.

The board was covered with examples of one thing being traded for another of equal value.

I gripped my black pen, crossed out the word “equal” in my notes, and carefully wrote “fair” beside

My pen hovered over the page for a moment.

At home, everything had always been about paying an equal price.

If I wanted anything, I had to give something up and sign an IOU.

No one had ever cared whether any of it was fair.