I invited them all. Every single person they’d pushed aside. I didn’t announce it. I didn’t explain myself. I simply opened my doors.
The next two weeks were a blur of planning. Catering. Tables. A photographer, because I wanted proof, because I’d learned that memories could be rewritten but images could not. My dining room could seat twenty-four, with overflow into the adjoining sitting room. No one in my immediate family knew where I lived. That was intentional.
The morning before Thanksgiving, Madison texted again. “Hope you enjoy being alone. Maybe you’ll finally understand that actions have consequences.” I almost laughed at the irony. Thanksgiving morning arrived cold and clear. Everything was ready. Everything was perfect.
Then the security system chimed.
My stomach dropped as I pulled up the camera feed. My father’s car sat at the front gate. My mother beside him. Madison in the back seat. Tyler behind them in his own vehicle. Somehow, they had found me.
They didn’t leave.
For twenty minutes, they pressed the intercom, shouted accusations, blamed me for turning the family against them. Then the alert came. Motion at the east perimeter. I watched in disbelief as my father climbed the stone wall, struggling, red-faced, furious. Madison followed. Tyler hesitated, then climbed too.
Glass shattered moments later. The sound echoed through the house like a gunshot. I met them in the foyer, cameras recording everything. My father advanced on me, spitting rage, accusing me of arrogance, of betrayal, of thinking I was better than them. Madison laughed, hysterical now, eyes darting around the house, taking in the wealth she’d never believed I had.
They prowled through my home like they owned it. Touching. Judging. Yelling. My mother talked over everyone, rewriting reality in real time. Then my father stepped closer. Too close.
“You’ve always thought you were better than us,” he said, his face inches from mine. I told him I only wanted respect. That’s when his hand closed around my throat.
