3.

My mind went blank. It was the end of shift, everyone streaming out to eat, and the crowd was thick on every side.

The woman in front of me kept it up, shouting her grievances against me for everyone to hear.

I tried hard to pull my arm back, but the grip only tightened.

My mother had one hand clamped on me and the other pounding at her own chest, sobbing so hard her face was wet with it.

My father crouched off to the side with my sister curled in his arms, saying nothing, puffing on his pipe.

People pointed and muttered around me. "Our factory's really turned out someone special. So young and already this cold-hearted."

"Right? Look how weak that little sister of hers is."

"Whatever the reason, that's her own flesh-and-blood sister. To just cut her off like that."

Gloria pushed forward, took my mother's hand, and turned to me with a face full of righteousness. "Gillian, your mom knows you want to save a little money. She's already being so understanding about it."

"But you can't be this heartless and not give a single cent."

"Look at your sister in your dad's arms, look at the state she's in!"

"And you wouldn't even pick up when your aunt and uncle called. You made them wait out at the gate all this time."

"You've really gone too far this time! I can't even stand to watch it!"

The crowd heard that and started in on me again, one after another calling me unfilial, calling me an ungrateful wretch.

And saying how kind-hearted Gloria was, worlds better than someone like me.

At Gloria's little speech my mother threw herself onto her and clung to her.

Weeping and wailing about how hard it was to be a parent, about how they'd been forced to beg me, driven to it by me.

More and more people gathered, and standing there, all I felt was wave after wave of dizziness.

Right on cue, my sister let out a fit of coughing loud enough to wake the dead.

The crowd hushed for a second, then went back to loudly condemning me.

I stood there watching all of it, and suddenly I was just tired.

I shook off my mother's hand and walked step by step up to my father, and reached out to touch my sister's forehead.

Her eyes were squeezed tight shut. She was nervous, even, the lids fluttering and twitching against it.

Something rose in my chest, a deep, hard hatred. Hatred that they'd treated me like a fool, hatred that they'd used family to chain up my whole life.

And more than that, hatred for why they couldn't love me the way they loved her.

"Dad, did the two of you ever once feel sorry for me?"

"Is she the only daughter you have?"

At that my father froze, the pipe going still in his mouth, and he looked up at me.

"Has she really been sickly since she was small?"

I looked straight into my father's eyes, and I didn't miss that flicker of panic in them.

When did it start?

When my sister didn't want to haul firewood down the hill or cut pigweed, or didn't want to feed the chickens or wash the dishes, and started faking it?

They'd caught on and never called her out, had even kept it from me together.

Tricked me into playing the family's workhorse my whole life, and glad to do it.

The commotion was too big; management came over fast and scattered the crowd.

My parents and I were shown into an office, and the section manager smoothed things over with a smile.

"Gillian Gray, I know you. You're a hard worker, aren't you? Good-natured too."

"Your family's in this much trouble, just lend a hand. Work hard and the factory won't do you wrong."

"You're a young girl. Don't wreck things with your own family like this."

My mother, as if she'd found her anchor, plopped down flat on the floor and started to wail.

"Raised this daughter for nothing, she's an ungrateful wretch! Her sister's still so little, how could she do this!"

"Why is my life so bitter! I can't handle her anymore, you leaders handle her for me!"

"Do you know your sister almost didn't make it out of the hospital! We had no choice either!"

"Mom's begging you. Show some mercy, save your sister!"

I looked at the faces around me, every one of them false, the scheming and the coldness right out in the open, and I laughed.

My voice came out perfectly calm. "Fine. I'll give it."

4.

The moment I finished speaking, the whole room lit up.

Even Sonia, who'd been curled up in Dad's arms playing sick, cracked her eyes open.

I set my savings book down in front of them. "These past few months, I've saved eight thousand dollars."

Mom's eyes went bright at the sight of it on the table, and her hand shot out to grab it.

Eight thousand dollars, back in the nineties, was no small fortune.

I pulled the book back into my hand. "But I have one condition."

"Go on, go on, Mom's good girl, whatever you want, your mom and dad will agree."

She was smiling all over her face, so eager the wrinkles around her eyes stood out.

I looked away and kept going. "We cut ties."

I ignored the shock on every face in the room and said it slowly.

"If you want this money, we cut ties. My name comes off the family register, and after that we have nothing to do with each other."

"Otherwise, none of you gets a single cent out of me."

The room went quiet for a moment. Legally cutting off all family ties was still a strange, new phrase then.

Dad, who hadn't said a word this whole time, clutched his chest on the couch and kept heaving for breath.

"Cut ties!"

"Fine, fine, fine. So I, George Gray, really did raise an ungrateful little snake."

"I should've strangled you the day you were born."

I said nothing, just watched them quietly. Cutting ties was the only way I could think of right now.

This life, I wanted to live once for myself.

Dad opened his mouth to say something, but Mom tugged at his sleeve.

"Agree to it. You really think a little slip of a girl can pull off anything out there? She'll be back before long, crying and begging us."

"We'll see how we deal with her then!"

"If I don't peel a layer of skin off her, I'll call her my mother!"

I took leave from work and rode the train back home with them.

When I took the sheet of paper from the town mayor, the red ink of the stamp still not dry.

Mom and Dad kept looking my savings book over and over, my sister tucked in their arms.

Her face wasn't pale anymore, and she'd stopped coughing.

Then Mom cleared her throat.

"All right, take your things and go. You're not this family's daughter now, so what are you still doing living in our house?"

"Didn't you want to cut ties? Quit clinging on like you've got no shame."

I lowered my head, silent for a moment, then gathered my luggage. "Okay."

Just before I stepped out the door, I heard laughter drifting in from the yard.

"Sonia wants those little leather shoes from the mall, doesn't she? Mom'll buy them for you!"

My sister laughed, delighted. "I want braised pork and a big breakfast sandwich from the restaurant too!"

"Okay, whatever my precious girl wants, Mom will buy it for you."

Inside, everything was warm and easy. My feet didn't slow, and I didn't turn back to look.

I carried my thin bundle of luggage and walked forward, one step at a time.

Gillian Gray, you finally saved yourself, for once.

This time, I'm going to live a life that's nothing like the one before.