As my parents stormed out of my office, their curses and threats echoing in the corridor, a heavy silence settled over the room. The confrontation had taken an unexpected and ugly turn, leaving me with a throbbing headache and a profound sense of disillusionment. I had hoped, perhaps naively, that time and distance might have changed them, that they would see the error of their ways and the pain they had inflicted upon me.
I sank into my chair, my heart heavy with the weight of the encounter. I had never imagined that our next meeting would be under such acrimonious circumstances. The faint hope that they might have changed, that they might have softened with age, had been shattered. It was clear that my parents remained the same authoritarian figures who believed in power and control abo
