Chapter 26 Receipts, Scripture, and Sin ( Lotus)
Later on, that night the screen door creaked open with that familiar wheeze Carole’s signature entrance after a long day.
Keys hit the side table. Purse dropped heavy onto the recliner. She didn’t even take her shoes off.
“Oh, so I see the family investigator been running his mouth,” her mother said, voice dripping with venom and theater.
She peeled off her name tag with a sharp flick, tossed it on the counter like she was shedding a costume.
“I work ten hours a day on my feet, come home exhausted, and now I gotta walk into an ambush?”
Lotus just stood there, jaw clenched, the silence thick with tension. Before she could even respond, her mother’s tone shifted—half preacher, half performer.
“Get thee behind me, Satan!” she declared, eyes blazing. “I will not allow you to bring the spirit of strife into my house! Not today!”
Lotus’s chest burned with fury. Her mother wasn’t taking accountability—she was pulling scripture like a shield.
“Oh, that’s what we doing now?” Lotus shot back, voice trembling but fierce. “You really gon’ stand here and blame the devil for your actions? The devil didn’t steal nobody’s inheritance—you did that all by yourself!”
Her mother gasped dramatically, clutching her pearls like she’d just been slapped by the Holy Ghost. “Watch your mouth, young lady! You walking on dangerous ground, talking to your mother like that.”
Lotus’s laugh was bitter, hollow. “No, you been walking on dangerous ground, lying to everybody and calling it faith. Don’t twist scripture to clean up your sins, Ma. God might forgive you but I’m still waiting on the truth.”
The room fell heavy, the air so tight it hummed. Her mother muttered another prayer under her breath, but Lotus could see it in her eyes this wasn’t conviction. It was deflection. And that only made her blood boil hotter.
“No one ambushed you,” Lotus said, voice steady.
Carole gave a bitter laugh, heading to the kitchen just to rattle pots she didn’t plan on using.
“Oh please.” Don’t do that, Lo. I know what this is. Cam done found some dusty-ass folder and now y’all in here judging me like I ain’t break my back raising you.”
Cam shifted awkwardly, but Lotus didn’t blink.
“You always do this,” Lotus said. “Turn every conversation into a guilt trip. Start crying about being a single mother so no one can hold you accountable.”
“I was a single mother!” Carole whipped around. “Your daddy died and left me with bills, two kids, and a funeral I couldn’t afford! You think I had a choice?”
And Cam Let’s not talk about your father. Who is just pure evil
Lotus’s voice trembled with fury, but her words came out clean and sharp.
“Don’t you dare try to stain my father’s name or paint him as the bad one,” she said, eyes locked on her mother. “He always took care of me always. If I remember right, Autumn and Cam are Rufus’s kids. So how did I end up the middle child, huh? Unless you were stepping out?”
Her mother froze, but Lotus didn’t stop. “You wanna talk about truth? I heard you that night—you and Rufus going at it. He called you all types of name, said you led my father on when you were still sleeping with him. I was standing right there in the hallway. I didn’t wanna believe it, so I kept it to myself all these years just to keep the peace in this family.”
She let out a bitter laugh. “But now? Now I see keeping the peace only made you comfortable. It let you keep scamming your way through everything playing holy in public while breaking people in private.”
Lotus took a step closer, her stare cutting through her mother like glass. “And you know what really gets me? Rufus don’t claim anything that isn’t his. So when I think back on it, and the way he looked at me versus Autumn… from that look on your face right now, I know it’s true.”
Her mother didn’t answer—just stood there, eyes glistening, jaw tight, scripture on her tongue but no defense left in her soul.
“No,” Lotus said slowly. “I think you had choices. And you made one that benefited you. You took my insurance money. You sat on a property I could’ve used to escape struggle. And you never told me.”
Carole’s face cracked—half rage, half rehearsed heartbreak.
“I did what I had to do!” she snapped. “You had food. A roof. Shoes on your feet. I sacrificed everything for you kids.”
“And you made sure we never forgot it.”
Lotus stood, the pressure building behind her eyes but not breaking through.
“You and Autumn ” she continued, voice rising, “Y’all play the same damn game. Mess up. Get found out. Then cry so loud that no one sees the damage you left behind.”
That hit hard. Carole winced like the words slapped her.
“I am not Automn,” she spat.
“No,” Lotus said. “But y’all both forgot something.”
Carole stared.
“I’m your daughter. And I’m human. Not your backup plan. Not your guilt sponge. Not your emotional dump site.
I also endure waking up in the middle of the night and extra early in the more to feed came as a baby or help take care Autums kids and also working . You don’t think hard as child.
Or provoking my stepdad to save yall from getting beat. Endure the abuse as well.
Tell me this mother why is your hurt and struggle are more important than mines. Have you forgotten when you struggle so did we .
Carole’s breath hitched.
“I carried this family,” Lotus said. “But I’m not doing it anymore. Y’all want a savior, find a new one. ”
For a long moment, the room held its breath. Then Carole sat down, slow, and heavy, like her knees finally gave out under the truth.
She reached into her bag. Pulled out a yellow envelope and slid across the coffee table.
“I wasn’t planning to give this to you,” she muttered. “It’s your father’s other property. Off Pinewood and 9th. It’s in his name but the paperwork’s clean. It’s yours if you want it.”
Lotus stared at the envelope. Her hand didn’t shake this time.
“I don’t want it out of guilt,” she said. “I’ll take it because its rightfully belongs to me . And I’m done asking for permission.”
Cam exhaled like he’d been underwater.
Carole didn’t speak. Didn’t cry. Just sat there deflated and finally, finally silent.
Lotus picked up the envelope and walked toward the door.
This time, she wasn’t running away from the house.
She was walking out with something that belonged to her and she wasn't carrying anybody.