“No wonder you’re single,” Mia said, rolling her eyes. “No woman would put up with you.”
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My fork stopped halfway to my mouth.
Across from me, my stepmother, Karen, burst out laughing so hard she nearly spilled her wine.
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“She’s not wrong,” Karen said.
The two of them exchanged a look.
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That look bothered me more than the insult itself.
They weren’t teasing.
They were enjoying it.
For years, I had trained myself not to react whenever my family pushed too far. I was always the reasonable one. The dependable one. The person expected to absorb everyone else’s problems without causing any of my own. Familylaw advice
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But that night, something inside me finally snapped.
Not loudly.
Quietly.
And maybe that was why neither of them realized how serious I was.
I carefully set down my fork.
“Must be nice living rent-free.”
Mia smirked.
I waited one beat.
Then said, “Oh, wait. Not anymore. You’re out of my apartment by tomorrow.”
Her smile disappeared.
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Karen stopped laughing.
For the first time all evening, the room went completely silent.
My name is Thomas. I was twenty-nine then, working in IT for a financial-services company.
