The familiar subway stench assaulted my senses as I sat in the empty car. Not too long ago, I’d had a limo and a driver taking me where I wanted, when I wanted. At one time, I was what I hated most in the world, but those days were gone.

The subway ride wasn’t long, and I was home in thirty minutes. Good old Brooklyn.

I turned the key to our two-story brownstone, walking quietly not to wake up my mother or sister. My sister, Sarena, hadn’t gotten used to our new way of living. She’d started taking jobs watching rich old men’s homes or their bratty kids. She would end up with some old man, a trophy wife on his arm, spending his fortune and chasing something she’d always longed for: status.

My mom started working five years ago after it all happened. She mourned my dad for all of ten seconds, picked herself up, and moved us out of our twenty-million-dollar apartment into the brownstone. The brownstone was at least ours, the one respite. After all was said and done, there was enough money left over to buy this place free and clear.

I hated her for it then, but now…now I understood. That life was poison, taking everything from her, and she didn’t want it to win. Sarena didn’t understand the decision, but I knew it had saved me. I saw those guys who were my best friends, slaves to the almighty dollar. Thinking the way they were told to, dating the right girl, and joining the right organizations. They were machines, robots mindlessly roaming the earth until they died in a pool of their wealth. I didn’t want anything to do with any of it.

“Where have you been?” my mother spoke softly from the corner of the dark living room.

She turned on the lamp beside the old leather wingback.  I could still see the black circles under her eyes in the darkness—proof of how tired she was, even though she constantly denied it. I hated how she worked herself to the bone, but I also understood that principles couldn’t be bought. She was a daily reminder of the mess my piece of shit father made.

“I was out with some friends. Studying.”

She nodded as she got up and walked toward me, placing her palm on my face. “You’re such a good man. Nothing like him.”

The aftertaste of my lie twisted in my mouth. I hated lying to her, but I knew she would worry if she knew the truth.

She grabbed me in an embrace, her arms light and airy. “You and your sister are the only good thing that came out of that old life. My angels.” She sounded off, but I chalked it up to maybe too many nightcaps while she waited for me to come home.