Luke chose the timing carefully.
Not during an argument.
Not during a crisis.
Not when hope was fragile enough to shatter.
He waited for a rare moment of calm—cheap pizza on the table, the TV murmuring in the background, everyone present for once.
"Hey," he said. "We need to talk."
That alone made Carl sit up.
The Reveal
"I've been making money," Luke continued, voice steady. "A lot of it."
Silence.
Debbie frowned. "Like… illegal?"
"No," Luke said. "A mobile game. I built it. It's doing well."
"How well?" Lip asked, already calculating.
Luke pulled out his phone and turned the screen toward them.
The number sat there, clean and undeniable.
Six figures.
Fiona's breath caught.
"That's not—" she started, then stopped. "That's not funny."
"It's real," Luke said. "Taxes paid. Accounts clean."
Carl whistled low. "Holy—"
Stabilizing the House
Luke didn't let the moment spiral.
"I'm not telling you this to flex," he said. "I'm telling you because things are changing."
He laid it out simply:
The mortgage arrears would be cleared
Utilities would stay on
No more payday loans, no more panic juggling
Emergency funds would be replenished and protected
"This doesn't mean we stop working," Luke added. "It means we stop drowning."
The word drowning hit hard.
Debbie nodded slowly.
Carl grinned, already dreaming.
Lip leaned back, conflicted but impressed.
Fiona's Complicated Feelings
Fiona hadn't spoken.
She stared at the table like it might accuse her.
Later that night, she cornered Luke in the kitchen.
"You didn't have to do this," she said.
"I wanted to," Luke replied.
"That's not the same," she snapped, then sighed. "I've been holding this family together since I was nine. And now—"
"Now you don't have to do it alone," Luke finished.
That was the problem.
Relief tangled with guilt.
Gratitude tangled with fear.
"If you fail," Fiona said quietly, "we all fall."
Luke met her eyes. "Then I won't fail."
Not arrogance.
Certainty.
A Shift in Gravity
The house felt different after that.
Not rich.
Not safe.
But steadier.
Luke noticed it in small things:
Fiona slept through the night
The fridge stayed full
Arguments ended faster
Money hadn't solved their problems.
But it had changed the physics of them.
Fiona's Truth
Before bed, Fiona knocked on Luke's door.
"I'm proud of you," she said, then hesitated. "And terrified."
Luke smiled faintly. "That means it matters."
She nodded, eyes shining, and walked away.
As Luke lay back, the System flickered silently in his mind.
Stability Achieved: Household Tier 1
Emotional Load Redistributed
This wasn't victory.
But for the Gallaghers?
It was the first time the ground didn't feel like it might vanish overnight.
And that was everything.