Steven closed his eyes.
"Then we started borrowing to cover our own installments too."
The silence that followed felt heavy enough to crush the room.
Melissa slowly leaned back in her chair as the reality settled over her.
"You borrowed money..." Her voice trembled. "To keep paying installments on borrowed money?"
Steven lowered his head even further.
"It wasn't supposed to happen like that," Vanessa said quickly.
"Then how did it happen?" Melissa asked.
Vanessa swallowed. "We thought things would improve."
"When?"
No answer came.
Because Vanessa didn't know.
Maybe she never had.
Maybe she'd simply kept hoping long after hope stopped making sense.
Silas spoke again, his voice so calm it was unsettling.
"How much do you still owe?"
Steven blinked.
"What?"
"The debt," Silas said. "How much is left?"
Steven opened his mouth, hesitated, then looked toward Vanessa.
She answered for him.
"Some of it is our share."
Silas waited.
"And the rest?"
Vanessa looked away.
"Other members' unpaid portions."
Melissa stared.
"So you're paying for people who disappeared?"
Neither of them answered.
That silence was answer enough.
Several tense seconds passed before Silas asked the question everyone had been avoiding.
"How much?"
Neither of them answered.
His voice hardened.
"How much money do you owe?"
Steven looked at Vanessa.
Vanessa looked at Steven.
Neither wanted to be the one to say it.
Melissa felt her stomach drop.
People only hesitated like this when the number was catastrophic.
"How much?" Silas repeated.
Vanessa's voice came out barely above a whisper.
"Brother..."
"How much?"
Another long pause.
Then she finally answered.
"It reached around two hundred thousand."
For a moment, the number didn't seem real.
Two hundred thousand.
The words hung in the air like something too heavy to process.
Melissa blinked.
Silas stared at Steven and Vanessa without saying a word.
Steven looked ashamed just hearing the figure spoken aloud.
Then the meaning finally settled over the room.
Melissa's face drained of color.
Silas remained completely motionless.
Two hundred thousand.
Not twenty.
Not fifty.
Two hundred thousand.
The number hit the room like a gunshot.
No one rushed to explain it.
No one tried to defend it.
The excuses that had filled the evening suddenly felt meaningless in the face of that single figure.
A thick silence settled over the dining room.
Vinay shifted slightly in his sleep against Vanessa's shoulder.
Somewhere upstairs, a floorboard creaked.
Otherwise, the house was completely still.
Silas lowered his gaze to the table.
For the first time that night, he wasn't asking questions.
And that frightened Steven far more than his anger ever could.
The silence that followed felt heavier than the debt itself.
Two hundred thousand.
The number continued echoing inside the dining room long after Vanessa finished speaking.
Melissa sat frozen in her chair.
Silas remained motionless.
Even Steven lowered his head, unable to meet anyone's eyes.
For several moments nobody spoke.
Then Silas finally lifted his head.
His expression had changed.
The shock was still there, but now confusion had begun replacing it.
He looked directly at Vanessa.
"Where did the money go?"
Vanessa blinked.
"What?"
"The money."
Silas repeated the question slowly.
"You took two hundred thousand."
His voice remained calm.
Dangerously calm.
"Where did it go?"
Vanessa immediately lowered her eyes.
"It was spent."
Melissa frowned.
"Spent?"
Vanessa nodded.
"Yes."
Silas continued staring at her.
"On what?"
Vanessa hesitated.
Then answered weakly.
"Daily expenses."
Melissa's expression immediately changed.
"Daily expenses?"
"Yes."
"Vanessa, think carefully before answering."
Melissa leaned forward slightly.
"You and Steven don't contribute much to this household."
The words were blunt.
Painfully blunt.
But nobody could deny them.
Melissa continued.
"You know Silas has been struggling for months. Even then he's still the one paying most of the bills."
Her voice gradually tightened.
"Food comes onto this table because of him."
"Electricity is running because of him."
"The roof over everyone's head is because of him."
Vanessa lowered her gaze further, but Melissa wasn't finished.
"If two hundred thousand was spent on daily expenses, where are those expenses?"
Vanessa swallowed. "It went toward the children."
"The children?"
"Yes."
Melissa looked genuinely confused. "Just the children?"
"School supplies. Clothes. Food. Medicine."
"And two hundred thousand disappeared like that?"
Vanessa couldn't answer.
Melissa turned toward Steven. "Tell me."
Steven immediately looked away. That reaction alone gave her the answer.
Silas rubbed his forehead, his exhaustion seeming to deepen by the second.
"Steven."
His younger brother finally looked up. "Yes."
"Did you see two hundred thousand?"
Steven hesitated before shaking his head.
"No."
Silas frowned. "You didn't?"
"No."
"Then where did it go?"
Steven remained silent.
Silas repeated the question again and again, but every answer remained vague. Some went into installments. Some went into repayments. Some went into household expenses. Some disappeared covering other people's debt. The explanations kept changing, and the numbers never added up.
After nearly ten minutes of questioning, Silas felt more confused than before. Melissa looked no better. Neither of them had received a satisfactory answer.
Upstairs, Tyler lay comfortably across his bed, one arm resting beneath his head while the other lazily held a guitar pick. Beside him, Nitsi lay on her stomach wearing earphones connected to a small music player.
The world downstairs felt very far away.
At least for her.
She removed one earphone and looked toward him.
"Your voice is really good, brother."
Tyler smiled slightly.
"Is it?"
"Yes."
"You don't have to lie."
"I'm serious."
She sat up a little.
"Why don't you play downstairs sometime?"
Tyler looked toward the ceiling.
"Downstairs?"
"Yeah."
Nitsi nodded enthusiastically.
"No one will make fun of you."
A small laugh escaped him.
"That's very reassuring."
"I'm serious."
"I know."
"Then do it."
Tyler remained silent.
Nitsi continued.
"Mom likes hearing you play."
"Does she?"
"She always smiles when she hears it from upstairs."
Tyler looked away.
For a moment something painful surfaced inside him.
Maybe next time.
The thought appeared automatically, then disappeared just as quickly because he knew better. There wouldn't be a next time. Not that kind of next time. Not in the future he remembered.
A strange sadness settled over him.
Nitsi noticed.
"You made the weird face again."
Tyler laughed softly.
"I didn't."
"You did."
"No."
"You definitely did."
Tyler reached over and lightly flicked her forehead.
She immediately protested.
"Ouch!"
"Dramatic."
"That hurt."
"It barely touched you."
Nitsi rubbed her forehead dramatically anyway.
Tyler smiled.
Then his smile slowly faded.
Because while Nitsi complained, another version of her existed inside his memories. A much older version. A much sadder version.
For most of his childhood, Tyler had been an only child. He remembered watching friends play with younger siblings, watching them argue, fight, laugh, and complain. At the time he had always felt jealous.
Then Nitsi was born.
And suddenly the house felt different.
Warmer.
Livelier.
Less lonely.
Even now she had a way of making every room brighter simply by entering it.
Tyler closed his eyes.
The memories returned.
The rented apartment.
The cramped room.
The faded walls.
The exhausted expression she carried.
After leaving the Brown household, Nitsi's life never became easier.
Quite the opposite.
While other children spent afternoons with friends, she spent hers helping around the house. While other teenagers worried about exams and hobbies, she worried about bills and responsibilities.
Little by little her smile disappeared.
The bright little girl beside him eventually became someone else.
Someone quieter.
Someone colder.
Someone who looked increasingly like Vanessa.
And that memory always hurt.
More than almost anything else.
Tyler had failed many people in his previous life.
But Nitsi was one regret he could never fully let go.
Because none of it had been her fault.
She was just a child.
A child forced to carry burdens she never deserved.
A child forced to pay for mistakes made by adults.
He opened his eyes again.
Nitsi was still talking about something.
Probably music.
Or school.
Or some random story from her day.
Tyler wasn't listening anymore.
His attention remained fixed on the future.
When he first returned to the past, changing her outcome had seemed obvious.
Of course he would save her.
Of course he would make sure she stayed here.
Of course he would give her a better life.
But now...
Now things weren't so simple.
Because changing her future meant changing everything.
And every change created consequences.
Consequences he couldn't always predict.
For years he had preserved the timeline carefully.
One small adjustment at a time.
Never too much.
Never enough to lose sight of the future.
But Nitsi...
She was different.
Whenever he thought about her, logic became harder to follow.
Because she wasn't a political problem.
She wasn't a financial problem.
She wasn't a strategic problem.
She was family.
And family always made things complicated.
Nitsi suddenly waved a hand in front of his face.
"Brother."
"Hm?"
"You stopped listening."
Tyler blinked.
"Sorry."
"You weren't listening at all."
"Maybe a little."
"No."
She pointed accusingly.
"Zero percent."
Tyler laughed.
"Fine. What were you saying?"
"I said your song was better than the original."
"That's definitely a lie."
"It's not."
"It absolutely is."
Nitsi crossed her arms.
"I'm never complimenting you again."
"You say that every week."
"And I mean it every time."
Tyler smiled.
For a brief moment, the weight inside his chest felt lighter.
Then voices from downstairs drifted upward once again.
The argument hadn't ended.
Not even close.
Tyler looked toward the floor beneath him.
The future was moving.
The Brown household was changing.
And somewhere in the middle of all those changes stood a smiling little girl wearing oversized earphones.
A girl who had already suffered once.
A girl he wasn't sure he could allow to suffer again.
For the first time in years, Tyler found himself questioning whether preserving the timeline was truly the right choice.
And he still didn't have an answer.
Downstairs, the argument continued long after Tyler and Nitsi stopped paying attention to the individual words.
The house felt different now.
Heavier.
As if every wall had finally become tired of carrying secrets.
Silas remained seated at the dining table, staring at the wooden surface in front of him. The shock of hearing the number had faded, replaced by something far more dangerous.
Reality.
Two hundred thousand.
No matter how many times he repeated it in his head, the amount remained absurd.
Melissa sat beside him, equally stunned.
Across from them, Steven and Vanessa looked like criminals awaiting judgment.
Finally, Silas spoke. His voice wasn't angry, only exhausted, as though the weight of the conversation had drained whatever energy he had left.
"Enough."
The room immediately fell silent. For the first time that night, even Vanessa stopped talking.
Silas slowly raised his head and looked at them both.
"I don't want more explanations."
Nobody answered.
"I don't want more excuses."
Steven lowered his eyes.
"I only want one answer. How are you going to pay it back?"
The question hung in the air.
Neither Steven nor Vanessa responded immediately because they didn't have an answer at least not one they wanted to say aloud.
Melissa looked toward them, waiting and hoping for something, anything, that might make the situation seem less hopeless.
Eventually Vanessa opened her mouth.
"Brother, I..."
Before she could continue, Silas raised his hand.
"Don't."
Vanessa stopped.
Silas's gaze hardened.
"Don't tell me you'll borrow more. Because if that's your solution, then stop now."
His voice carried a bitterness that hadn't been there before.
"Even I don't have that much money."
That sentence hurt more than any shouting could have. Everyone knew it was true. Silas wasn't the successful man he had once been. His salary was delayed, his savings were shrinking, and his future was uncertain. Now another two hundred thousand had appeared on his shoulders.
Across the table, Vanessa lowered her head. Outwardly she looked devastated, broken, almost defeated. Internally, however, a small smirk appeared.
Finally.
The thought surfaced quietly. The conversation had reached the place she wanted.
Upstairs, Tyler's lips curved into a faint smile.
The moment has come.
He had been waiting years for this. The future was moving exactly as he remembered.
Downstairs, Vanessa took a deep breath and spoke softly.
"There was a couple in one of the groups."
Silas frowned.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"They had problems like ours," Vanessa continued. "They kept borrowing. They couldn't pay. The debt became too large."
Nobody interrupted.
Melissa listened quietly as Vanessa looked up and said, "Last year they disappeared."
"Disappeared?" Silas asked.
Vanessa nodded.
"That's what everyone says. But they didn't really disappear."
Melissa felt uneasy immediately.
"What are you talking about?"
"They took money from several groups," Vanessa said, lowering her gaze. "Then left."
Nobody spoke. The meaning slowly settled over the room.
Silas stared at her.
Melissa stared at her.
Even Steven looked uncomfortable.
Then Vanessa finally said it.
"We can do the same."
Melissa immediately covered her mouth. Shock flashed across her face.
For several seconds she genuinely thought she had heard wrong.
"What?"
"As long as we leave before people realize," Vanessa said almost calmly. "There are no contracts. No legal documents. No bank records. The police won't do anything."
Melissa finally found her voice.
"Vanessa."
Her words trembled.
"How can you even suggest that?"
Vanessa looked back, almost offended.
"What choice do we have?"
"What am I supposed to do?"
Her own voice began cracking.
"I don't have the money. They come every week. They call every day. They follow us. They threaten us."
She pointed toward herself.
"They'll keep harassing me and Steven."
Melissa shook her head.
"But this isn't how we solve problems."
"Then how do we solve them?" Vanessa fired back immediately.
The question struck harder than expected.
She pointed toward Silas.
"Are you and older brother going to pay it back?"
Silence.
A painful silence.
Because nobody had an answer.
Not Melissa.
Not Steven.
Not even Silas.
The older man visibly flinched, not because of the accusation, but because it was true.
He didn't have two hundred thousand.
Not anymore.
The room fell quiet again.
Vanessa slowly lowered her voice.
"We have to think practically. This loan scheme isn't regulated. There aren't any contracts. There isn't paperwork. There isn't anything tying us here."
Melissa slowly sat back down, still unable to believe what she was hearing.
"But people will ask."
Vanessa nodded.
"Maybe."
"They'll come looking."
"Maybe."
"They'll hate us."
Vanessa looked away. At this point, she no longer seemed to care.
The room became silent once more.
Nobody knew what to say.
Nobody knew what to do.
And at the center of it all sat Silas Brown, the man who had spent years holding the family together, now staring at a future that seemed to be collapsing in front of him.