The first time I realized my family didn’t see me as a person, it wasn’t during one of my dad’s rants or my mom’s silent, weaponized tea-stirring. It was when my father peeled back the wrapping paper on my birthday gift like the paper itself had offended him, lifted the envelope between two fingers, and laughed loud enough that everyone at the table heard it. “Only three hundred?” he said, as if he’d opened a parking ticket.
“Lena covers your mother’s entire life. Forty-seven hundred a month minimum. What’s this supposed to be, a snack?”
Across the table, my sister Lena didn’t blink.
She just watched me the way a shark watches a cut finger. My mom stared into her tea like there was something fascinating at the bottom of the cup. Then Lena slid a folder toward me—three pages, stapled, official-looking, as if she’d printed it at a law office instead of our kitchen printer.
“We voted,” she said, crisp and smug. “You need to move out by Friday.”
Nobody flinched. Nobody defended me.
Not even my brother Tim, who just kept chewing like this was normal dinner conversation. And right then, something in me went quiet. Not my anger—my hope.
Because if they could vote me out of the apartment in my name, after years of living off my money like it was oxygen, then the only thing I’d been to them was a utility bill they hadn’t needed to pay. We were crammed into our apartment’s dining area—my apartment, technically—where the table was too small for the number of people Lena insisted on inviting. The air smelled like roast chicken and cinnamon candles, my mom’s signature scent for pretending the night felt warmer than it actually was.
My dad sat at the head of the table like he still paid his own bills. He hadn’t in years. I’d brought a gift envelope because it was the only thing I could afford without resenting myself.
Not from my main account—from my backup, the emergency fund I’d built brick by brick and never touched unless the world was falling apart. Three hundred dollars in cash, wrapped in silver paper, presented like an offering. Dad opened it and scoffed.
“Only $300? Lena covers your mother’s entire life—forty-seven hundred monthly minimum. What is this supposed to be?”
My throat went tight.
My fingers curled around the table edge. I stared at the envelope in his hand and realized he wasn’t reading my card at all. Those auto-payments came from my backup account without me even noticing anymore.
The story doesn’t end here — it continues on the next page.
Tap READ MORE to discover the rest 🔎👇
