Chapter 1 - The Empty Foundation
The scent of rubbing alcohol clung to my skin, a chemical shroud that burned my nostrils and reminded me of the sterile, unforgiving life I had just left. But the sting in my lungs was nothing compared to the hollow ache in my chest as I looked at the two hundred dollars on the table. It was a payoff. A severance package for a daughter they had already erased from the family ledger.
"I didn't come here to be a guest, Mom," I said, my voice quiet, cutting through the thick, suffocating tension in the living room. "I came here because this is my home. I helped pay for the renovations in the kitchen. I paid the property taxes for three years while I was working double shifts at the fabric store. You aren't just erasing my room. You're erasing the last six years of my life."
Lawrence, my father, finally turned his head. His eyes were cold, like chips of flint. "You were convicted of a felony, Summer. Whether you were covering for your brother or not, your name is on that rap sheet. If we kept your name on the deed, if you moved back here, this family would be radioactive. Do you want to destroy your brother's future? He’s going to be a father. He needs this house to be clean."
"Clean?" I laughed, a bitter, jagged sound. I looked at Austin. He looked like he wanted to dissolve into the floorboards. "Is that what you call it? Laundering a house while you launder your conscience?"
Sheila stepped forward, her hand resting protectively over her pregnant belly. "Don't you dare talk to him like that. He’s the one who stayed. He’s the one who took care of us while you were rotting in a cell."
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"I was in that cell for him," I whispered.
Austin flinched, but remained silent. That was my answer. The brother who had sobbed and begged me to save him had become the man who would let me walk into the night with nothing but a suitcase and a pittance.
