Chapter 4 - The Storm Begins
Over the next two months, I cut off contact with my parents and sister. I didn't block their numbers, but I stopped replying to their passive-aggressive group texts and Sunday dinner invitations.
Mom tried texting a week after the incident: Sarah, your father thinks you're being immature. We just didn't have the budget for an extra grandkid. You know how expensive Disney is. Stop pouting.
I didn't reply.
Then came late February.
I was at my office working on a software contract when my phone rang. It was my mother. I usually ignored it, but she had called three times in a row. I finally picked up.
"Sarah! Thank God you picked up!" Mom sounded hysterical.
"What happened, Mom?" I asked calmly.
"There's been a terrible mistake with our cruise! The travel agency says our Mediterranean cruise booking was canceled two months ago! They said the account holder withdrew the funds!"
I leaned back in my leather office chair. "Yes. I know."
There was a dead silence on the line.
"What do you mean, you know?" Mom’s voice dropped an octave.
"I canceled it," I said plainly.
"You... what?" Mom gasped. "Why would YOU cancel OUR cruise? That was a gift from your father’s old company! They told us it was a loyalty reward!"
"No, Mom," I said, letting out a soft laugh. "Dad’s old company didn't give you anything. Dad retired as a middle manager ten years ago. They didn't even buy him a gold watch. I bought that cruise. I spent forty-two thousand dollars of my hard-earned money to give you and Dad the 35th-anniversary trip you always talked about."
Silence stretched across the phone line. I could literally hear my mother's breath hitching.
"You... you bought it?" she whispered.
"I did," I replied. "I was going to present the tickets to you on Christmas morning. But then I watched you hand out Disney tickets to every single child in the room, including children who weren't even related to us, while making my seven-year-old daughter stand there empty-handed and feel worthless."
"Sarah..." Mom tried to interrupt, her voice suddenly trembling.
"You told Emma that you 'ran out' of space. You told her she was an extra kid. So I decided that if I didn't have enough room in your heart for my daughter, you didn't have room in your life for my forty-two thousand dollars."
"Sarah, please! That was your father's dream retirement trip! He’s been telling all his friends at the golf club about Rome and Barcelona for months! You can't do this!"
"I already did," I said cold-bloodedly. "It was canceled back in December. The refund paid for Emma and me to have our own vacation."
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"You ruined our anniversary!" Mom shrieked, breaking into full-blown tears. "How could you be so selfish and vengeful?!"
"I learned from the best, Mom," I said, and hung up.
