CHAPTER 6: THE VISIT
They came to my house on Sunday afternoon.
I was in the backyard, planting flowers, when I heard the car doors slam. I stood up, brushing dirt off my knees, and walked around the side of the house.
My mother, father, Lauren, Derek, Eric, and Mason. All six of them, standing in my driveway like they expected me to welcome them.
"Rachel," Mom said, her voice sweet and poisonous. "We've come to talk."
I stayed where I was. "I'm busy."
"This is important," Dad said. "We need to figure this out like a family."
"A family," I repeated. "That's interesting. Because last time I was at your dinner table, your grandson spit in my food and everyone laughed."
Mason shuffled his feet. Derek put a hand on his shoulder, a gesture of support for the little monster they'd created.
"He was wrong," Mom said. "We told him that. He's sorry."
Mason looked at me, and his expression was anything but sorry. He was smirking. Just like his father.
"He's not sorry," I said. "He's looking at me like I'm still the joke."
"That's not true," Derek said. "He's a child. He doesn't know—"
"He knows exactly what he's doing. Just like you. Just like all of you."
Mom stepped closer. Her eyes were wet, her lip trembling. She had always used tears to get what she wanted.
"Rachel, please. We can't lose the house. Your father's health—"
"Dad can work. He's sixty-three, not ninety. Eric can work. Derek can work. Lauren can work."
"We've tried," Lauren said. "The job market is terrible. You don't understand—"
"Oh, I understand perfectly. You don't want to work. You want me to keep paying so you can sit around and make jokes about me."
Dad stepped forward. "Rachel, I never meant to make you feel—"
"Dad, you sat there. You didn't say a word. You let them humiliate me. And you've been doing it for years."
He opened his mouth, then closed it.
I looked at all of them, lined up in my driveway like strangers.
"I'm not paying for anything else," I said. "Not the mortgage. Not the utilities. Not the groceries. Not the insurance. Nothing. You need to leave now."
"We have nowhere to go," Mom said.
"Then you should have thought of that before you made me the enemy."
I walked past them, through my front door, and locked it behind me.
They stood in my driveway for twenty minutes, talking, arguing, trying to figure out what to do next.
Then they got in their cars and drove away.
I watched them go from my bedroom window.
May you like
And for the first time, I didn't feel guilty.
I felt free.
