“Mom and Dad. They… they left.”
His fingers clenched on the steering wheel.
“After the lawsuit, things got worse. Worse. The debts caught up. They burned through everything. The house got foreclosed on last month.”
I frowned.
And Ethan let out a bitter laugh.
“And they ran. Packed up whatever they could and disappeared. No forwarding address. No goodbyes. Nothing.”
He exhaled sharply.
“They left me with everything. The collectors. The mess. Just… just abandoned me.”
I studied him carefully.
For the first time in his life, Ethan was experiencing what I had grown up with.
Being left behind.
Being treated as disposable.
And it was breaking him.
He rubbed his face.
“I don’t know what to do, man. I’m drowning.”
A long silence stretched between us.
And then I said, “That’s not my problem.”
His head snapped up.
“Come on. Don’t be like that. We’re family.”
“No,” I said coldly. “We’re not. Family doesn’t treat each other the way you did. Family doesn’t stand by while one person is treated like garbage just because it benefits them.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“You all always had a choice,” I shot back. “And you always chose them.”
He stared at me, chest rising and falling rapidly.
I could see the anger bubbling just beneath the surface.
The frustration that, for the first time ever, his words weren’t working on me.
I turned toward my door.
“Good luck, Ethan. You’re going to need it.”
I stepped inside and locked the door behind me.
Through the peephole, I watched him sit there for a few minutes, gripping the steering wheel, breathing heavily.
Then, without another word, he drove away.
That was the last time I ever saw him.
I don’t know where my parents went.
I don’t care.
They built their lives on lies, on manipulation, on using people and throwing them away.
And in the end, they did the same thing to their golden child.
Poetic, isn’t it?
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Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction created for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.