The Walkie-Talkie That Exposed Everything I Gave Away

I didn’t sleep that night. Or the next. Every time I closed my eyes, I heard Lila’s cruel laughter and Thomas’s easy agreement—like my years of sacrifice were nothing more than background noise in their plans.

How do you give so much and end up invisible? How do people look at your love and see only what they can take? I scrubbed dishes until my fingers cracked, until I couldn’t feel anything but exhaustion.

I skipped meals so they wouldn’t have to. And in the end, what was I to them? A walking rent check. A silent source of income.

That’s when I realized—if I didn’t stop them, they’d keep taking until I had nothing left but emptiness. Saturday was my 60th birthday. I arranged a small dinner, though my hands shook the entire morning.