So on Thursday, I took the afternoon off and drove to Westerville.
I stood on the edge of Linda’s kitchen while three men from Buckeye Kitchen & Bath ripped out the oak cabinets with crowbars. I watched them unbolt the old dishwasher, which didn’t leak at all, by the way. I watched them pry up the laminate countertops, which had exactly one tiny chip near the stove. I watched them haul it all out the side door to the dumpster.
The kitchen David said was falling apart had been perfectly fine. Dated, sure, with oak cabinets and almond appliances from 1994. But nothing was coming off the walls.
Linda wasn’t there. She’d gone to Naples for a long weekend, David said, to “visit a friend.” She’d left him in charge.
By 4:30, the kitchen was bare studs and concrete.
And then I asked David the question.
“Did your mother tell you she listed this house for sale last week?”
I showed him the Zillow listing on my phone.
He took it from my hand. He scrolled through it once, slowly, then again. I watched him read the words “BRAND-NEW CHEF’S KITCHEN.” I watched him see the estimated price of $389,000 and the “Coming June!” banner across the top.
“This is a mistake,” he said. “This has to be a mistake. Somebody posted the wrong house.”
“Go look in her garage,” I said.
He looked at me. Then he walked through the empty doorway, down the three steps to the garage, and over to the recycling bins.
I heard him stop.
When he came back, he was holding the real estate sign in its plastic wrap. COMING SOON. Karen Delgado, Delgado Realty Group.
His hands were shaking.
“There’s more,” I said quietly. I pulled up Linda’s Facebook post and handed him my phone again.
Naples, Florida, here I come! Can’t wait to start this next chapter with my Frankie! Big news coming soon!
David stared at the photo of his mother in her straw hat with a silver-haired man in a Hawaiian shirt he’d never met and never heard of.
“Who is Frank?” he whispered.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I think your mother’s moving to Florida to be with him. And I think she’s selling this house to pay for it. And I think she let you pay for a new kitchen so she could sell it for sixty thousand dollars more.”
David sat down on an overturned five-gallon bucket in the middle of his mother’s gutted kitchen and put his face in his hands.
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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