I went into labor, but my mother coldly said, “The hospital? Dinner comes first!” Then my sister laughed and set our car on fire. “Another useless human? What’s the point?

Not the fire. Not the betrayal. Not the begging.

Just the truth that love is proven by what people do when it costs them something.

The last time Margaret called, I let it ring until silence returned.

Then I picked up Sophia, kissed Ryan’s head while he colored at the kitchen table, and went back to the life I had rebuilt without them.