Chapter 155 Jason's Solution
JASON'S POV
I could not sleep after Caitlyn told me about the money situation and I lay there for a long time after she fell asleep and I just kept thinking about the numbers she had shown me and what they meant and what I was supposed to do about it.
She was already applying for jobs and I knew she was going to work hard at that because she worked hard at everything but jobs took time and we did not have a lot of time and I needed to do something now and not in three weeks when maybe she got a callback from somewhere.
I had been doing some pickup work here and there since everything happened but it was not consistent and the pay was not great and I had been telling myself it was fine but it was not fine and I knew that now and I needed to be honest with myself about it.
I got up early the next morning before Caitlyn woke up and I made coffee and I sat at the kitchen table and I thought about what I actually knew how to do and who I actually knew and what options were realistically in front of me.
I knew Marcus from before and Marcus had reached out to me a few months back about some work and I had said no at the time because I was trying to keep my head down and stay clean but I knew the pay he was talking about was serious money and I had his number still.
The work Marcus did was not exactly dangerous in the way people made it sound but it was not exactly safe either and it was not something Caitlyn would like and I knew that which was why I had said no the first time but things were different now because we actually needed the money and me saying no for the sake of it was not going to help anyone.
I picked up my phone and I sat there looking at Marcus's contact for a long time and then I called him.
He picked up on the second ring. "Jason," he said. "Was not expecting to hear from you."
"I know," I said. "That job you mentioned a few months ago. Is it still available?"
"The transport job," he said.
"Yeah," I said.
"It is still available," he said. "Pay is the same. Fifteen hundred a run. Cash."
Fifteen hundred a run was more than I made in two weeks doing pickup work and I did the math in my head and I thought about what a few runs could do for our bank account and how it could buy Caitlyn more time to find something steady.
"How many runs a month," I said.
"Depends on how available you are," Marcus said. "If you can do three a week I can keep you busy."
"What exactly is being transported," I said even though I already had a general idea.
"Packages," Marcus said. "You pick them up. You drop them off. You do not ask what is in them. You just drive."
"And if something goes wrong," I said.
"Nothing has gone wrong in two years," Marcus said. "I run a clean operation. You show up. You do the job. You get paid. That is it."
"I need a few days to think about it," I said.
"Take your time," Marcus said. "But not too much time. I have other people I can call."
I hung up and I sat there with the phone in my hand and I thought about it. I thought about the bills and the bank account and Emma and Caitlyn and the two trials still coming and all of it together felt very heavy and the fifteen hundred per run felt like the only thing that could actually fix the situation fast enough to matter.
I called Marcus back that afternoon. "I am in," I said.
"Good," Marcus said. "First run is Thursday. I will send you the details."
I did not tell Caitlyn.
I thought about telling her but I already knew how that conversation would go and I did not want to have it and I told myself I would do a few runs and get enough money together to cover us for a few months and then I would stop and she would never have to know and everything would be fine.
Thursday came and I told Caitlyn I had a job interview and she said good luck and kissed me and I drove to the address Marcus sent me and I picked up two sealed boxes and I drove them across the city and dropped them at another address and a guy came out and handed me an envelope and I counted fifteen hundred dollars in cash and I drove home.
It felt simple and I told myself it was simple and I tried not to think too hard about what was in the boxes.
I did a second run the following Monday and a third run on Wednesday and by the end of that week I had four thousand five hundred dollars in cash and I put it in the account in pieces so it did not look strange and I felt relieved for the first time in weeks because the number in the bank was not scary anymore.
Caitlyn noticed the account balance had gone up and she asked me about it and I said I had picked up some extra work and she seemed happy about it and she said that was great and I felt terrible for about ten seconds and then I told myself it was fine because I was protecting her and that was what I was supposed to do.
I kept doing the runs. I did not stop after a few like I had told myself I would because the money was good and the bills kept coming and I did not want to go back to being scared about the account balance again and I thought I could just keep going a little longer and then stop.
Marcus started giving me bigger jobs. Longer drives. More boxes. Higher pay. Two thousand a run instead of fifteen hundred and I said yes because two thousand was two thousand and every time I said yes I told myself it would be the last one and every time I drove home with the envelope I thought about how I was going to tell Caitlyn one day and how she was going to understand once I explained it to her.
But I kept not telling her and the runs kept happening and
The money kept coming in and I kept pretending everything was fine.