They Called Me Selfish for Asking Him to Feed His Own Son Chapter 12
The chat is relentless-all insults.
[There she is! The evil witch!]
[Trash. Walks out on her kid and then has the nerve to go live?]
[Derek]s such a good guy and you destroyed him. Got no conscience or what?]
[Even your own kid hates you. Go ahead, try to lie your way out of this one.]
I don’t respond to a single one.
I just sit in front of the camera. Quiet. Waiting.
Waiting for the numbers to settle.
Five minutes later-over five hundred thousand viewers.
I lift my head and look into the lens.
“Hi, everyone. I’m Clara. Derek Shaw’s wife. Tonight, I’m here to tell you the truth. No crying. No sob story.
Just facts.”
The chat still screams. I ignore it.
I pick up the first piece of evidence and hold it to the camera.
A bank statement.
“This is my paycheck history for the past seven years. Started at twenty-two hundred a month. Now I make
thirty-two hundred. Total income over seven years-about two hundred twenty thousand dollars. Let me
show you where that money went.”
I pull out hospital receipts. One by one. Year by year. Covering the entire desk.
“Heart surgery for my father-in-law-fifteen thousand dollars. Diabetes complications, mother-in-law
hospitalized-eight thousand. Their monthly meds-four hundred dollars a month. Over seven years, that’s
nearly thirty-four thousand. Total medical expenses for Derek’s parents-fifty-seven thousand dollars.”
The chat slows.
The insults thin out. Question marks multiply.
[Wait, she dropped fifty-seven grand on his parents?]
[And she paid all of that herself?]
I smile. Flat.
“Yes. Fifty-seven thousand dollars in medical bills. I paid every cent. Not just that-mortgage, car loan, our son’s tuition, all household expenses for five people-everything came out of my pocket.”
“Mortgage-nine hundred a month. Seven years, that’s seventy-five thousand. Car loan-three hundred a month, around twenty-five thousand. Leo’s preschool and activities-eight hundred a month for five years, that’s forty-eight thousand. Utilities, gas, groceries, HOA fees-another eight hundred a month. Over seven years, that’s sixty-seven thousand.”
I list each number to the camera. Then look up.
“Total-over two hundred seventy thousand dollars. My total income-about two hundred twenty thousand. The gap-fifty-two thousand dollars. That gap came from working overtime every night, maxing out credit cards, borrowing from payday lenders, and hitting up coworkers and friends. Right now, I still owe over forty thousand dollars in debt.”The chat goes silent for a second.
Then explodes.
[Wait, for real? She went into debt just to keep this family from falling apart?]
[Then where’s her husband’s money at?]
[Yeah, Derek’s pulling in thirty-eight thousand a month, right?]
[I thought he was some kind of saint. What about his own house?]
I let the comments roll, then pick up Derek’s pay stubs and donation receipts.
“Derek Shaw. Monthly salary-five thousand two hundred dollars. Seven years-close to four hundred forty thousand in total income. He donated over four hundred thousand dollars. More than he earned.”
“How? Because he didn’t just donate his salary. He also donated his parents’ retirement savings, Leo’s birthday money from relatives, and even the cash I’d set aside for his father’s surgery.”
