I pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down.
“Did you really think I would keep paying after you replaced me?”
“We didn’t replace you. Your sister needed—”
“My place,” I said. “She needed my place.”
Silence.
Then my mother said, very quietly, “You can travel whenever you want, Nina. You have a good job. You have money.”
“Apparently I can pay whenever you want too.”
“You’re punishing us over a vacation.”
I looked over at my packed suitcase by the door.
“No, Mom. I’m declining to pay for one I was kicked off of.”
She hung up.
For the next hour, the larger family group chat lit up. Somebody, I assumed Talia, had told the rest of the family what was happening.
My Aunt Irina, Dad’s older sister, asked whether my parents were safe. Were they on the street? Did they need help?
A cousin I hadn’t spoken to in two years wrote that money should never matter more than family.
Then Talia posted the lobby photograph to the group.
Imagine doing this to your own parents on their anniversary.
My hands were shaking. I typed a reply. I deleted it. I typed another one, longer, angrier. I deleted that too.
In the end, I took a screenshot of my original message, the one showing that it had been delivered before their plane even landed. I posted it to the group.
I added only one line.
They have their return flights and their own credit cards.
Aunt Irina wrote back within a minute.
Then book yourselves a room, Marek.
Nobody else said anything.
Ten minutes later, Talia deleted the lobby photograph.
I set the phone face-down on the table and let out a breath I’d been holding for hours. I thought that was going to be the worst of it. A few angry calls. Some family drama. Maybe a cold Thanksgiving.
I was wrong.
At three-seventeen that afternoon, an email arrived from the travel agency I had used to book the hotel package. Lumière Travel Partners, a boutique agency with an office in Paris and another in New York.
The subject line said Payment Authorization Required.
The amount was €8,640.
I sat up straight and opened the attachment.
It was an invoice. Eight rooms. Four nights each. The same hotel in Saint-Germain.
Under the booking reference, there was a line I read four times before it made sense.
Volkov Group. Organizer: Nina Volkov.
I had booked two rooms.
I read the whole document again, slower this time, line by line, the way I would at work. Room types. Rates. Taxes. City tourism fees. Arrival date.
The arrival date was today.
I called the agency using the phone number from my original confirmation email. A woman with a pleasant voice answered and asked me three security questions. My date of birth. The last four digits of the card on file. The name of my first pet.
Then she put me on hold.
When she came back, she said, “Thank you for waiting, Ms. Volkov. Are you calling about the additional room allocation?”
“I’m calling because I don’t know what it is.”
A pause.
“I’m sorry. Was this not arranged through your representative?”
My stomach went cold.
“I don’t have a representative.”
Ethan Blake is a skilled Creative Content Specialist with a talent for crafting engaging and thought-provoking narratives. With a strong background in storytelling and digital content creation, Ethan brings a unique perspective to his role at TheArchivists, where he curates and produces captivating content for a global audience.
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