I paid for my parents to fly out and see me for the first time in four years. They stayed at my sister’s house 30 minutes away. I set the table every night for a week. They never came. On their last day, Mom texted: “Maybe next time, sweetie!” I was the bank. Not the daughter. So I shut it down.

and turned my phone face down. “You flew them here. You’ve funded their mortgage, their medicine, and their vanity for years. And you are sitting here watching them spend your time and your money at your sister’s house.”

“I don’t want to be cruel, Olivia,” I whispered.

“Boundaries aren’t cruelty, Soph,” she countered. “They only feel like cruelty to continue reading …