ADVERTISEMENT
“How dare you charge us for this? She is your daughter, and you should have been the one to pay for her travel anyway.”
“I paid for her to be looked after and protected, not to be abandoned in the middle of nowhere.”
My father took the phone from her. “Here we go again with your temper tantrums and your inability to see the bigger picture. The girl was sick, and we had a schedule to keep.”
“She was just feeling dizzy, Dad.”
“And what exactly did you want us to do? Did you want us all to miss our expensive flight because of a little girl who could not hold her stomach?”
I remained silent for a long, painful second. “I wanted you to not leave my daughter alone on a dangerous road.”
My mother let out a dry, condescending laugh. “Oh, Catherine, you are always so incredibly dramatic about everything. I was only fifteen minutes away from where we left her.”
“It was almost thirty minutes away, and there was absolutely no one around to help her.”
“That is just what you say to make us look like the villains.”
Then I understood that there would be no apology. There would be no shame. There would be no realization that they were wrong. There was only defense and gaslighting.
“I want my money back by the end of the week.”
“We do not have that kind of cash on hand right now,” my father stated flatly.
“Then go sell the idea of being a perfect family to someone else who might actually believe you.”
My mother changed her tone to one of confusion. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that I am officially done supporting your lifestyle and your lies.”
Silence filled the line. For the first time, they were truly quiet.
“Are you really cutting off the emergency fund money too?” my father asked, his voice sounding thinner.
“Yes, that ends today.”
“But we have important payments due for our household this month.”
“I also have a traumatized daughter to pick up from the road because her grandparents do not know how to act like decent adults.”
ADVERTISEMENT
