Betrayed By Blood, Loved By None

ght him the new gaming console he wanted, the one they had told me was too expensive when I

say, stroking his hair as he sat on the couch. "It m

in my own home, a ghost haunting not just the house, but the very memories of the people inside it. They s

ng, shaking his head. "So driven. It wasn't heal

t Carol, my mother's sister. I saw my mothe

she said, her

ard with some money in it, but he never called to say thanks. Is he okay?" Aunt Carol' s vo

e's just... being a teenager. He's at David's broth

big internship," Aunt Carol press

my mother' s face. "Plans ch

hat moment to make his move. He walked into the kitche

o good," he whimpere

y poor baby. What's wrong?" She hung up the phon

why Ethan is acting this way. Some of my friends saw him talking to this girl from Northwood High. They said he was telling

High. But my parents swallowed the lie whole. It fit the narrativ

"He used the gas money we gave him for that? A

mother added, her voice filled with disdain. "When he finally

es later, probably cut off and wor

an adult now, he can make his own stupid decisions. We have more important thi

as a dull, heavy stone in the pit of my soul. I remembered all the other times Alex had done this. The time he broke my mother' s favorite vase and blamed it on me. The time he stole money from my f