The bills hit the coffee table like accusations. Teresa’s hand slammed down beside them, the sharp sound cutting through the afternoon silence.
“Look at this mess,” she seethed. “Three hundred for electricity. Two-fifty for gas. And your pathetic $1,200 pension doesn’t even cover the groceries anymore.”
Her husband, Neil, shifted on the couch, his eyes glued to a TV talk show. The canned laughter punctuated our family drama.
“We are drowning here, Dad,” Teresa spun on me, her face flushed. “And you just sit there.”
I folded my hands in my lap. I was an old man in an armchair I no longer owned, in a house I had paid for. “The pension covers what it covers,” I said quietly. “Maybe one of you could finally find a job.”
Neil’s head snapped toward me. “Are you saying I’m a failure? I’ve been looking. The market’s terrible.”
“For two years?” The question slipped out.
“Right,” Teresa scoffed, “Neil’s the problem. Not the fact that your social security is barely enough to keep the lights on.” She gestured wildly at the bills. “We need real money, not pocket change.”
I worked thirty-seven years at that factory. That “pocket change” supported your mother and me just fine.”
“Well, Mom’s not here anymore, is she?”
The cruelty of it landed like a slap.
“Maybe you should have thought about that before moving in,” Neil added, standing up. His bulk cast a shadow over me.
“I seem to remember being asked to move in,” I said, my voice dangerously steady. “Right after I sold my house and gave you $150,000 for your down payment.”
“That was three years ago!” Teresa waved her hand dismissively, as if erasing my life’s savings. “Things change.”
Neil stepped closer, towering over my chair. “Look, old man. We’re grateful, but that doesn’t mean we owe you free room and board forever. Your share would be splitting everything three ways. That means $800 for rent, not the nothing you pay now.”
The math was a prison sentence. It would leave me $400 a month for food, medicine, and life. They had discussed this. This was planned.
“So,” Neil pressed, “figure out how to contribute more, or figure out somewhere else to live.”
The television audience erupted in applause. I looked at my daughter, searching for the little girl who used to hide from thunderstorms in my arms. I saw only a stranger, her eyes as cold as the November air outside.
“Fine,” Teresa snapped when I didn’t speak. She stalked to the kitchen, rifled through her purse, and returned. She thrust a crumpled $5 bill at me.
“Here.” The money hung between us, a symbol of my worth. “Buy a lottery ticket. At least then you’ll be of some use.”
Neil chuckled. “Yeah, Dad. Go win us the jackpot.”
This wasn’t about the lottery. It was an eviction notice. I reached out and took the five dollars. The paper was soft, worn thin.
“I’ll do that,” I said.
I stood, my knees protesting. As I buttoned my coat, Teresa called after me, “Get the $5 tickets, Dad. They have better odds.”
The front door clicked shut behind me, sealing off the warmth and the sound of the laughing television. I was on the sidewalk, with five dollars in my pocket and nowhere to call home.
The walk to the 7-Eleven was twenty minutes. Twenty minutes to remember.
Three years ago, I was standing in the kitchen of my house. The house I’d bought with Margaret, the house I’d paid off, the house where I’d raised Teresa.
“Dad, you can’t live in this big house all by yourself,” Teresa had said, her voice dripping with a concern I now knew was false. “It’s not safe. What if you fall? Come live with us. You’ll always have a home with us.”
Always.
The house sold for $182,000. I kept $28,000 for emergencies and gave them the rest. $150,000. A gift that had purchased me three years of indentured servitude. It had taken them exactly three years for “always” to become “dead weight.”
The fluorescent lights of the 7-Eleven felt harsh. Behind the counter, the clerk, Romesh, smiled.
“Afternoon, Mr. Peters. Cold one.”
“Getting colder,” I agreed, looking at the lottery display. A shrine to impossible dreams. The Powerball jackpot was $30 million.
“Drawing’s Tuesday,” Romesh said. “Feeling lucky?”
“Very,” I said. I placed Teresa’s crumpled $5 bill on the counter. “One Quick Pick for tonight. The name on the ticket… Teresa Hargrove.”
Romesh typed it in. The printer whirred.
Then, I pulled out my own wallet and placed a crisp $10 bill beside her $5. “And two more Quick Picks,” I said, my voice clear. “For Orin Peters.”
“Got it. Good luck to you both, Mr. Peters.”
I folded the three tickets. Teresa’s went into my shirt pocket. My two went into my wallet, tucked safely behind a photo of Margaret.
When I returned, they were still on the couch. I placed the three tickets on the coffee table.
“Got the tickets,” I said. “Drawing’s Tuesday.”
“Great.” Teresa didn’t even look up. “Now you can start planning how to spend your millions.”
“Maybe you can buy us a new house,” Neil grunted, grabbing a ticket and glancing at it before tossing it back. “Thirty million, huh? Knowing our luck, we’ll win a free ticket.”
For four days, I was a ghost in their house. The tickets sat on the table, forgotten among the junk mail. I read my book, ate their leftover casserole, and waited.
Tuesday night, the lottery show began. We gathered by habit.
“Might as well check our loser tickets,” Teresa said, picking up the three slips of paper.
The host, all teeth and enthusiasm, announced the jackpot. “Thirty million dollars!”
“Buys a lot of beer,” Neil muttered.
The first ball dropped. “Seven.”
Teresa squinted at the first ticket. “Hey, we got the seven.”
“Don’t get excited,” Neil said.
“Twenty-three.”
Teresa sat up. “We got that one, too.”
“Thirty-one.”
“Wait.” Her voice climbed. “Neil, that’s three numbers.”
“Forty-two.”
She was on her feet now, the ticket shaking in her hand. “Four. We have four numbers.”
“Fifty-eight.”
A dead silence filled the room. Teresa stared at the ticket, her lips moving. Neil grabbed her wrist, pulling the ticket to his face. “We have 58,” she whispered. “That’s… that’s five numbers.”
“And now,” the host boomed, “for the Powerball… it’s twelve!”
Teresa looked at the ticket. Her face went bone-white. She said nothing.
“What?” Neil yelled. “What is it?”
She turned to him, her eyes wide with a terrifying, wild joy. “Twelve,” she breathed. “It’s twelve.”
Neil snatched the ticket. His eyes scanned the numbers. “We… we won.” He jumped from the couch. “WE WON! THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS!”
He grabbed Teresa and spun her around, shrieking. They were clutching each other, laughing and crying, dancing around the coffee table.
“We’re rich!” Teresa screamed. “We can quit! We can buy that house in Florida! The boat! We can do anything!”
I sat in my armchair, watching. They were so lost in their euphoria, they had forgotten I was even in the room.
Then, Teresa’s celebration stopped. She was still breathing hard, her face flushed, but her eyes landed on me. The joy in them curdled into something cold. Calculation.
“No more,” she said, her voice quiet. “No more worrying about money. No more depending on anyone.”
Neil followed her gaze. A cruel smile spread across his face. “That’s right. We don’t need your pathetic pennies anymore, old man.”
“Those ‘pennies’ fed you,” I said.
“Fed us?” Teresa laughed. “We’ve been carrying you for three years, Dad. Three years of extra food, extra heating. Three years of supporting your dead weight.”
“I sold my house for you.”
“You sold your house because you couldn’t maintain it!” Neil stepped forward. “Because you needed us! Well, guess what? We don’t need you. Pack your bags. It’s time you found somewhere else to live.”
“Neil!” Teresa’s protest was a whisper.
“No, he’s right,” she said, her voice hardening as she clutched the ticket to her chest. “This changes everything, Dad. We can finally live our own lives. We’ll find you a nice assisted living place. Somewhere… appropriate.”
They were kicking me out. With $30 million in their hands, their first act was to discard me like trash.
“I understand perfectly,” I said. I rose slowly from my chair. They expected me to beg. They expected me to weep.
“Good,” Neil sneered. “Don’t make it harder than it has to be.”
I walked to the bottom of the staircase, then paused and turned back. They stood together, champions, holding their golden ticket.
“Daughter,” I said, my voice cutting through their excitement. “In all this joy… are you sure you read the name on that ticket?”
Teresa’s smile faltered. “What? It’s our ticket.”
“Is it? Look closer.”
She lowered the ticket. Her eyes scanned the small print above the numbers. The color drained from her face. I watched her read it aloud, her voice a horrified whisper.
“Orin… Peters.”
“That’s right.”
“This… this can’t be.” She looked from the ticket to me, her mind refusing to connect the dots. “This is a mistake!”
“No mistake.” I held out my hand. “That ticket belongs to me. You gave me $5. I bought three tickets. One in your name, with your money. It’s the losing one still on the coffee table. And two in my name, with my money.”
Neil’s face went from red to a sickly purple. “You… you planned this. You set us up!”
“I bought a lottery ticket,” I said, plucking it from her numb fingers. “I just got lucky.”
“$30 million,” I said, reading the slip. “That’s quite a sum. Enough to buy a nice house. Enough to travel. Enough to finally live without being a burden.”
“Dad, wait!” Teresa’s voice was a desperate plea. “We can share it! We’re family! We didn’t mean it!”
“Didn’t you?” I placed the winning ticket in my wallet, next to Margaret’s picture. “You just told me I was dead weight. You were sending me to a ‘home.’ You were very clear.”
“Give that back!” Neil lunged, his face a mask of rage.
“You take one more step,” I said, my voice hard as steel, “and I will call the police for attempted theft. I’m sure they’d be interested to see the security footage from the 7-Eleven of me buying my tickets.”
He froze.
“We made a mistake!” Teresa was sobbing now, grabbing at my arm. “We were excited! You can live here! We’ll take care of you!”
I pulled my arm away. “No. People say what they really think when they feel safe. You thought you were safe. You showed me my true worth to you.”
I picked up my pre-packed suitcase from the hall closet.
“Where will you go?” she whispered, all the fight gone.
“Somewhere I’m wanted. Somewhere I’m valued.” I opened the front door, and the cold, clean air felt like freedom.
I made my mistake three years ago when I sold my home. Tonight, I’m correcting it.
I walked out onto the porch and didn’t look back. Behind me, I heard a sound begin—a terrible, animalistic scream of pure loss. It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.
The next day, I claimed my $18.2 million lump sum. My new house in Lake Forest has a view of the water. I’m thinking of taking a trip to Tuscany in the spring. Finally, at sixty-eight years old, I am no longer a burden. I am just… free.
