forcing me to save.
Every month, on the twenty-ninth, Mom called at exactly 8:00 p.m.
“The mortgage is overdue. Pay it now,” she said that Thursday. “And send your sister twelve thousand for her new house. She needs furniture before the housewarming.”
I stared at my laptop, where a contract worth more than my parents had earned in twenty years waited for my signature.
“No.”
Silence.
“What did you say?”
“I said no.”
Her voice hardened.
“Emily, don’t start acting important because you got some fancy title. Family
