The Price of Familial Betrayal
vings, every penny I had worked for, into the new account that my family had no knowledge of. Then, I canceled the automatic mont
ing lot. It was my mother. I let it go to voicemail. Then my
city I' d left behind, I felt a strange sense of lightness. The weigh
egan a smear campaign. He went to Miller & Son Hardware and told the reg
sorrow. "Turned her back on her family. Thinks she'
g at her dry eyes with a tissue, playing t
weep to anyone who would listen. "A
Henderson, who owned the bakery next to the h
"I remember a girl who worked here every weekend since she was fourteen. I remember seeing her, not Mike, unloadin
know what you' re talking about, Hende
n retorted, wiping his hands on his apron. "Seems to me that girl has been propping this
could only sputter. "She' s an un
small town had eyes. They had seen me working. They had seen Mike driving new car
office. The card was from Mr. Henderson. It read:
ad through my chest.
for the flowers," I said,
. "Your father' s been running his mouth, but d
milial betrayal. It reminded me that the world was bigge
nt a single text to my old number, which I k
e closed the joint account and stopped all payment
l, definitive cut. The umbilical cord of financial obligation was severed. T