Introduction

The front door of my childhood home opened, and my mother' s face soured.

"Sarah." Her voice was flat, holding no warmth. "What are you doing here?"

I' d stopped by, thinking it might bridge the endless chasm between us. Instead, another demand was already forming in her eyes, even before I stepped inside.

For years, I was their bank. I paid Mike' s overdue rent, his credit card debt, even their mortgage-a mortgage only high because they' d refinanced to bail him out yet again. My entire adult life had been spent cleaning up their messes, while they praised my brother, Mike, the "heir" who hadn' t worked a steady job in a decade.

Then, my father gathered the family and announced his updated will: everything-the house, the family business-would go solely to Mike. My years of sacrificing, of financially propping them up, were dismissed as merely "my duty as a daughter." "You' re just a daughter," he' d hissed, "Your only duty is to support your family."

The injustice burned, yet it wasn't the first time they' d declared me less for being a girl. But this time, watching my brother' s smug, triumphant grin, something inside me finally snapped.

"Fine," I said, my voice calm, but filled with a resolve they' d never heard. "From this day forward, you won' t get anything from me." I walked out, leaving their shock and fury behind, finally free.