“Oh, is that so?” I said. “Well, I’d like to use my car now, so could you return it? That would be really helpful.”
I held out my hand.
Greg glanced between my face, Ryan’s cool gaze, and the officers waiting outside.
His shoulders sagged.
He dug into his pocket and pulled out the keys, then dropped them into my palm.
The metal felt heavier than it should have. Not just a key, but a line back to my own life.
After confirming that the camper van was officially back in my possession, Ryan quietly started talking.
“Hey,” he said, his voice calm but sharp enough to cut. “Why did you abandon your family and choose to play around with this woman?”
Greg’s head snapped toward him.
“Ryan,” he started, “it’s… complicated.”
“It’s because I’m more attractive than your mother,” the woman cut in, flipping her hair. Her lipstick was too bright for a campsite, and she posed as if she were on some reality show instead of sitting in a stolen van. “Look at me. You can see it, right? He fell head over heels for me and decided to leave his family.”
Ryan turned his gaze on her, unimpressed.
“I didn’t ask you,” he said flatly. “Old lady. Dad, you answer.”
Her mouth dropped open.
“Old—” she sputtered, then snapped her lips shut when Ryan didn’t flinch.
Mandy—that was her name, I remembered from Ryan’s research—glared, but said nothing.
Greg remained quiet too, scratching at an invisible itch on his neck.
Ryan sighed.
“If you can’t explain,” he said evenly, “that’s fine. I’ll just have the police come back and arrest you.”
“Wait, hold on,” Greg blurted. “Okay, okay, I’ll talk.”
He slumped back against the cushion.
He explained how Mandy had joined his company three months ago. How they’d clicked at the welcome party for new employees. How one drink turned into several, how one joke turned into late-night messages, and how he’d convinced himself he “deserved” happiness after all the stress at home.
“Later, she told me she was pregnant,” Greg said, his voice dropping. “I thought… maybe this was my second chance. So I decided to start a new life with her.”
Listening to him justify himself was like watching someone explain why they lit a match in a dry forest.
“Why did you take the camper van?” I asked, my voice flat.
He shifted uncomfortably.
“I quit my job,” he admitted. “I wanted to sell the van for money at first. But it seemed like you were using it quite a bit on paper, so I—”
“I wasn’t,” I cut in. “I was in a hospital bed.”
He looked down.
“We decided to go on a trip first,” he muttered. “Figured we’d sell it later.”
“Wait,” he said suddenly, squinting at me. “How do you know all this?”
“Remember when Ryan got lost on that hike?” I asked. “After that, as a precaution, we bought him a kid’s cell phone and installed the GPS app. Did you forget we installed it on your phone too? So I knew where you were all this time.”
By the way, I later found out from Ryan that he had pretended to get lost that day because he wanted a phone and was tired of us saying “maybe later.” He’d picked a moment when he knew we’d be scared enough to listen.
I was amazed at his ability to think and act so strategically.
“I suspected something was off with Dad,” Ryan explained matter-of-factly now. “So I came up with this plan to monitor his actions. People tell kids things they don’t tell adults.”
I let out a breath that was half laugh, half sigh.
“You really are a terrifying child,” I said softly, though pride warmed my chest. “I will never become an adult like you,” Ryan added, turning to Greg, “who betrays important people without a second thought.”
Greg flinched.
Faced with the hard truth his son had just spoken, he looked like a deflated balloon—pitiful, sagging, unable to offer any rebuttal.
In contrast, seeing Ryan—only ten—but able to think and speak his mind so firmly, gave me a new sense of strength as a mother.
I couldn’t afford to fall apart anymore. Not when my child stood this straight.
“Also,” I said, turning back to Greg, “return the twenty thousand dollars you withdrew from my account. Right now.”
He blinked.
“That was our joint property as a couple,” he said. “I don’t have to return it. It’s community assets or whatever.”
“No,” I said sharply. “It’s not. That money was what I saved little by little since I was single. Before you. Before the wedding. You always quit your jobs halfway, remember? We hardly ever saved money together. You didn’t put into that account. You just emptied it.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it again.
I could see the calculation in his eyes—how much he could argue, how much he could bluff.
“So that’s how it is,” I said quietly. “But if you stole and used the camper van and my money, that’s going to be a serious crime.”
“What?” Greg gasped. “I just sent the police away, so it’s not their business anymore, right?”
“I only said we would talk,” I replied coldly. “I have no intention of withdrawing the complaint. I need to add the theft of my money to the report.”
“Mom,” Ryan said, taking out his phone, “should I call the police now? I can do it with just one button.”
Mandy had been watching our conversation with increasing panic. Suddenly she lunged toward the door of the camper van, clearly planning to bolt.
She yanked it open and froze.
Then she screamed.
Outside the door, an older couple stood shoulder to shoulder, their faces flushed with anger. The woman’s jaw was tight, the man’s hands were clenched into fists at his sides.
Mandy’s parents.
Startled, Mandy stumbled back into the van.
“Ah, I’m sorry,” she babbled. “Don’t be so angry. But why are you here, Mom and Dad?”
“I called your parents beforehand,” I said calmly.
She turned to me, eyes wide.
“You called… my parents?” she repeated. “What? Why?”
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