Chapter 3

I had the down payment record for this house and the original purchase contract.

On top of that, every time I transferred them money, I'd added a note saying it was a loan, not a gift.

Add in this $126,000 mortgage, and I was eighty percent sure I could redefine who actually owned the house.

Even if the deed was in Kevin's name.

At that thought, half my anger drained away.

Seeing that I wasn't saying anything, my dad started smoothing things over. "We'll talk about this later. Let's finish drawing the prizes first."

Irma drew the pregnancy prize, four hundred thousand dollars.

My dad and my mom each drew five hundred thousand in retirement money.

The remaining six hundred thousand was the family fund.

Three million, carved up just like that.

And I drew the $126,000 mortgage—pathetic and laughable, when I was still renting to this day.

Back when Kevin got married, my parents said Irma wasn't used to a crowded, noisy house, so they told me to go rent a place of my own.

And now here I was, reduced to this.

Cassandra, Cassandra—I was a mistake from the day I was born. But my biggest mistake was being too soft-hearted, and waking up too late.

Just then my phone buzzed, but I wasn't in the mood to look at it.

Kevin dug up paper and a pen from the room. "Sis, even close siblings should keep the accounts clear. If you're paying this mortgage, you need to put it in writing."

I thought it over carefully. Writing it down was better than not.

"Fine! I'll write it. Over the years, you've borrowed forty-six thousand dollars from me, one loan after another, and I have a record of every single one."

"Let's settle that account first, or I won't sign."

My mother's face fell at once, and her eyes filled with disgust as she looked at me.

"Cassandra, so you've grown a spine? We fed you and clothed you all these years, and now you're settling scores with us?"

"If we hadn't scrimped and saved to put you through college, do you think you'd be where you are today? Look at little Suzie from back in the village—married at eighteen, a mother of three now, living so well."

"Then look at you! A thirty-year-old spinster! I'm ashamed to even say it out loud!"

"When the relatives ask, I'm too embarrassed to open my mouth!"

My father stood up and went out to the balcony to smoke.

Hearing all this, I trembled all over, my fingernails digging hard into my palms.

This was the same script they'd used to manipulate me since I was a child.

Every time, they used it to pin me down. We fed you, clothed you, put you through school, so you should just let us bleed you dry!

You're a girl, you'll belong to someone else's family sooner or later.

I lifted my head, tears standing in my eyes. "Since you gave birth to me, raising me was your responsibility and your duty. You say you put me through college, but you only paid for the books and tuition my freshman year."

"After freshman year, it was all my own work-study and student loans that got me through college."

"My first year working, I earned four thousand five hundred a month, and I sent four thousand home. And what did you do with it? You used my sweat and blood to buy Kevin a computer, an iPhone, to send him on trips."

Kevin's face flushed red. "Why... why bring that up..."

My mother's fingers shook with rage, and she grabbed the broom beside her.

"You ungrateful daughter! Did we raise you just so you could talk back and settle accounts with us?"

The broom came down on my shoulder. It hurt, but I didn't move an inch.

I stared her down. "I'll pay the mortgage, fine, but this debt gets settled first."

Just then my father came in from the balcony, his face full of grief and reproach. "A perfectly good family reunion dinner, turned into this!"

He whispered a few words to my mother. She nodded, then called Kevin and his wife into the bedroom.

I looked at the half-eaten meal, and the tears fell.

About ten minutes later, the four of them came out.