The front door swung open, and my brother Derek Finch walked in holding his girlfriend's hand.
My mother moved with lightning speed, shoving me aside and positioning herself to block me from view. She put on a bright smile. "Oh, you're back! Derek, why don't you take Tessa to the room to rest? It's so late already, and we've got visits to make tomorrow for New Year's Day."
Derek knew exactly what was going on. He hurried his girlfriend into the bedroom without a word.
My mother jabbed a finger against my forehead, her voice dripping with contempt. "This discussion is over. Stop making trouble. And don't you dare embarrass us in front of guests."
I stared at them.
I stared at the room they'd promised was mine, all those pretty words they'd spun about it.
It was laughable, really. I was an idiot. A fool. After all these years, some small, stubborn part of me still clung to the hope that they meant what they said.
The truth was, everything they'd ever promised had one purpose: to get me to spend my money furnishing the place.
And I'd fallen for it. I'd actually believed we'd turned a corner. That we were finally becoming the loving, harmonious family I'd always wanted.
I was always doing that. Trying to heal my childhood by living inside a fantasy.
Playing a role inside a lie.
In front of other people, I'd describe my family as close-knit, warm. I'd paint myself as the cherished youngest daughter, the little princess raised in the palm of everyone's hand.
Sometimes, when you tell a lie enough times, you start to believe it yourself.
I couldn't tell what was real anymore.
But my father's slap had dragged me back to reality with brutal force.
How could I have forgotten?
I was the extra child. The one born outside the policy. My father paid the five-thousand-dollar fine to keep me, and even that was only because losing me would have been too embarrassing. The policy required him to get a vasectomy afterward.
He blamed me for his declining health. Said it was the surgery. Said it was because of me.
He still kept the receipt for that fine. He'd pull it out every now and then, a reminder that everything hard about our lives was my fault. If only they'd had that five thousand dollars. If only I hadn't been born.
Growing up, I shared everything with my older sister. Her bed, her space. Her hand-me-down clothes became mine.
I was the family's buy-two-get-one-free deal. The freebie that came with a phone top-up.
As a child, I was chubby. To save money, my mother gave me her own underwear to wear.
When I hit puberty, no one paid attention. I had no choice but to steal my sister's bras. They never fit. The bands dug into my skin, leaving angry red welts every single day.
Years of wearing the wrong size left permanent damage. My body still carried the evidence.
When I got my first period, I didn't dare tell anyone. For a long time, I wadded up toilet paper and used that instead.
When my sister came home on breaks, I'd sneak her pads. She caught me once and called me disgusting. Said I was too young to be using them, that only loose girls did that.
And then there was my father, coming home from his construction jobs once a year. He always brought gifts. New clothes and toys for my brother and sister. I'd stand on the bed and watch, silent, empty-handed.
Even my aunt couldn't stand it. "Why didn't you get anything for the youngest?"
The answer was always the same: "Your sister's things are your things."
Then my sister got married and moved out.
I thought the room would finally be mine. Just mine.
Instead, they filled it with junk. Storage boxes, old furniture, bags of things that had nowhere else to go. They walked in and out whenever they pleased, as if my privacy didn't exist. As if I didn't exist.
I remembered one time the wind blew the door shut and the lock caught by accident. My father stood outside, and in front of the relatives who'd come to help pry it open, he said every vile thing a person could say.
Words I could never bring myself to repeat.
I don't think any father should ever call his daughter a whore. Should ever tell her she might as well die in there.
But mine did. During the most vulnerable years of my girlhood, he said those words to me.
In this house, nothing had ever belonged to me.
Not even myself.
