For a long moment, I just sat there.....staring at the message like it was a live wire. My stomach twisted. Fear, anger, exhaustion.....all of it swirled together so fast I could barely breathe. Fear, because I knew what that text meant; anger, because I didn’t deserve any of this. None of it.
And then something in me just broke.
Why was I still letting this man haunt my peace? Why was I the one walking on eggshells over a debt that wasn’t even mine? My father owed him, not me. My father, who hadn’t called since yesterday. My father, who hadn’t even asked how I was holding up since he dumped his chaos in my lap. I was the one losing sleep, panicking every time my phone buzzed, living like I was guilty of something I didn’t even do.
It hit me all at once, this sharp, breathless realizati
