"Cecil, stop being difficult. Today's your cousin Derek Hollis's wedding—it's a big occasion. You should at least come."
"We're family, after all. Making a scene like this—how does that look?"
I shook my head.
"I'm not going. I'm never coming back."
The moment the words left my mouth, my father's furious voice erupted from the other end of the line:
"You ungrateful little—! You think you're somebody now? Think you can mouth off to your own parents?"
He'd clearly been listening the whole time and couldn't hold back any longer.
"You're disowning us?"
"Whose blood runs through your veins?"
"Whose food did you eat growing up?"
"Without us, where would you be?!"
"And you have the nerve to bring up that two hundred thousand? Huh?"
"That was our retirement money! Our life savings—a demolition settlement we waited our whole lives for, blessed by our ancestors!"
"Why should we give it to you?"
"Let me tell you something—I raised you, put you through school. That's more than enough!"
"You're a grown man now. You should be carrying your own weight!"
"The second something goes wrong, you come crawling back to Mommy and Daddy with your hand out like some spineless leech. Have you no shame? You've dragged the Dickerson name through the mud!"
My mother chimed in from the background:
"Exactly!"
"We brought you into this world and raised you so you'd make something of yourself—so you'd take care of us in our old age!"
"Not so you could latch onto us like a parasite, sucking us dry for the rest of your life!"
"Look at yourself—from the day you were born to now, what glory have you ever brought us?"
"Your wedding—we paid. Your house—we paid. Now your son gets sick, and you come begging again!"
"Did we owe you something in a past life?!"
"Is that it? You won't stop until you've bled us dry?"
Their words were like sharpened blades, each one driving into a heart that had long gone numb.
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.
When I said nothing, my father pressed on, self-righteous as ever:
"It's our money, and we'll give it to whoever we damn well please!"
"We gave it to your cousin because we wanted to!"
"He lost both his parents when he was little. He's had it harder than you, and he's a hell of a lot more grateful!"
"I don't know where you get off being this shameless—the second you don't get your way, you throw a tantrum and threaten to cut ties!"
"We must've done something terrible in a past life to end up with a son like you!"
I didn't respond. I just hung up, their relentless tirade still ringing in my ears.
The world went quiet.
All that was left was the phone in my hand, still faintly warm against my palm.
Without thinking, I swiped the screen open.
Derek had posted something new.
A video from the wedding.
An upscale hotel. Glittering crystal chandeliers. A banquet hall packed with guests.
The camera panned, and there they were—my parents.
They sat at the head table in brand-new clothes, faces glowing with pride.
When Derek and his bride came over to toast them, my mother reached into her bag and pulled out a thick stack of red envelopes, pressing them into the bride's hands with a look of pure adoration.
The caption beneath the video read:
"Not my birth parents, but better than any birth parents could be!"
Watching the way my parents looked at Derek in that video—the warmth in their eyes, genuine and overflowing—something twisted in my chest.
I couldn't help but think back to when we were kids, when my parents first brought Derek home.
He always grabbed my toys.
Whenever I took them back, my father's hand would crack across my face.
"You're the older one—why can't you share with your brother?"
I never understood. I was only one month older than Derek.
Why did I have to give him everything?
But to keep my parents from getting angry, I learned to obey.
