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cnu-When I woke up from spinal surgery, I expected to see my parents waiting beside my hospital bed with flowers and tears, but instead a trust attorney stood at the foot of the bed and said, “Celestine, your parents transferred $31,247.83 out of your grandmother’s educational trust while you were under anesthesia” — and when he showed me the text my mother sent at 9:39 a.m., the seven words were colder than the operating room: “Do it now while she can’t check.”

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from studying, anything except the old curve waking up again. I stretched. I bought a heating pad from CVS. I took ibuprofen with cafeteria toast so it would not tear up my stomach. I walked around campus wearing a brace under my hoodie and pretended the sweat gathering beneath it was normal.

By January 2024, I could not sit through a fifty-minute lecture continue reading …

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