At breakfast, Dad announced: “We’ve booked a trip to Italy. Just the five of us. You understand, right?” I nodded. “Yeah, ok.” That night, a bank alert showed $9,600 charged in Rome, Venice, and Milan. So I shut everything down. Within 48 hours, their world collapsed.
By eight that morning, my family had decided I was too harmless to truly hurt. By midnight, they discovered I was the reason their lives functioned.
Breakfast smelled of coffee, burnt toast, and lingering resentment. Dad occupied the head of the table, stirring
