My mother moved closer, lowering her voice as though I were the unreasonable one. “Honey, your sister’s marriage is fragile right now. Just move out for a little while and let her be happy.”
The entire room fell silent.
I looked at my mother. Then Melissa. Then the strangers already settling into the house I had spent years working to buy.
“Move out?” I repeated. “From the house with my name on the deed?”
Melissa rolled her eyes dramatically. “You’re always traveling anyway. You don’t even use all this space.”
Something inside me snapped so quietly that nobody noticed.
I walked into the guest room and found my clothes shoved into garbage bags, my office files crammed into a closet, and Melissa’s in-laws’ suitcases spread open across my bed.
I dragged the first suitcase outside and dropped it hard onto the porch.
Melissa screamed, “What are you doing?”
“Returning stolen space,” I answered.
