I delivered food during the day and pitched my homemade snacks to every customer I could.

Four more years ground past like that before Joe finally graduated.

Without tuition hanging over my head, I let out the deepest breath I'd drawn in a decade.

Mom and Dad asked me to move back home. Their health was failing, and they wanted me close enough to look after them.

Ten years had changed the little town I'd left behind. It had grown, filled in, caught up with the rest of the world.

So I came back. Rented a stall on the main strip.

Mornings I sold fresh rolls. Afternoons, fruit. Nights, I ran a barbecue stand.

Aside from covering Joe's rent and living expenses whenever he came up short, I spent the next two years scraping together $166,000 for his bride price. Every other dollar went toward the debt.

Finally, in the thirteenth year, I paid off every last cent of the $1.09 million I owed, principal and interest combined.

I walked home clutching that debt-clearance certificate with a joy I hadn't felt since the day I'd held my college acceptance letter.

But Dad was sitting at the kitchen table, holding a diagnosis report in his trembling hands.

Stage-four lung cancer.

So I strapped my father onto my back, figuratively speaking, and set off down yet another road—this time from hospital to hospital, doctor to doctor.

There had been someone once. A man I liked. He'd wanted to take me away from all of it.

But my parents said:

"You're the oldest. Family comes first. Once your brother's settled, then you can think about yourself."

Everything I wanted had to yield to this family.

And just like that, fourteen years slipped by. The wide-eyed girl who'd once clutched a college acceptance letter had weathered into a woman in her thirties.

Half a lifetime spent running myself ragged for this household, and not a single day lived for myself.

I didn't know how long I'd been sitting there in the dark when my phone buzzed. Mom.

Her voice was laced with irritation:

"It's pouring out there. Why aren't you home yet?"

"It's cool outside," I said. "Helps clear my head."

"What's gotten into you now? My legs are killing me. Get back here and rub them."

I drew a long breath and swallowed the bitterness rising in my throat.

"On my way," I said quietly.

When I got home, the courtyard was a wreck.

Joe and Christine were sunk into the couch, faces lit blue by their phones.

Mom was slumped in her chair, groaning softly.

Nobody was tending to her. Nobody had bothered to clean up the mess left over from the funeral.

The second she saw me, Mom's mouth opened:

"Finally. Go cook something. We've been starving all afternoon."

I didn't answer. I dragged the rain-soaked table and chairs under the awning, swept the garbage into a pile, changed into dry clothes, and walked into the kitchen without a word.

At dinner, Mom picked up a piece of meat with her chopsticks and placed it in Joe's bowl. Only then did she turn to me, her tone as casual as if she were asking me to pass the salt:

"Blanche, clear out your room. Your nephew's due any day now. He'll need a nursery."

"You can string up a curtain on the balcony and set up a cot. You'll manage."

Something inside my skull buzzed, sharp and white, like a wire snapping under too much tension.

My fingers tightened around my chopsticks. Then, slowly, they loosened.

"Fine."

Mom smiled, satisfied, and turned to Joe and Christine.

"See? Told you she'd agree. Your sister's devoted to this family. She's not the type to throw a fit over some inheritance."

So she'd known all along how much this family meant to me.

Well. Not anymore.

Because I didn't have a family. Not anymore.

My appetite was gone. I set my chopsticks down, went to my room, and started packing.

Mom called after me: "There's no rush. Stay a few more days."

My voice was level. "No need. I'm leaving first thing in the morning."

Joe and Christine's heads snapped up from their bowls.

Mom's face darkened instantly.

"Leaving? Where do you think you're going?"

"The city. I'll find work. Live my own life."

Joe slammed his chopsticks on the table with a sharp crack.

"No way!"

"Christine could go into labor any day now. You're the best caretaker in this family. You're staying to look after her through the postpartum!"

I looked up at him.

"Taking care of her is your responsibility, not mine. Mom said it herself—this family rests on your shoulders now."

Mom set down her bowl too, eyes full of disappointment.

"Tell me the truth. Are you angry your father didn't leave you anything?"

Was I angry?

I couldn't put a name to it. There was just this weight in my chest, heavy and suffocating, and a fog in my head that wouldn't clear.

I shook my head. "It was Dad's decision. I've got nothing to be angry about."

"Then what's all this drama about?"

"Mom, I want to live for myself. Just once."

She froze. Her eyes reddened, and her voice cracked. "So what you're saying is we've been holding you back?"

"That's not what I mean. Mom, I'm tired. Can't you just let me rest?"

Joe's face hardened. He muttered through clenched teeth, "You say you're not angry, say you don't care, but deep down you're blaming Dad for not giving you a cut of the inheritance."

"Dad's debt was eighty grand total. Once the five hundred thousand in demolition money comes through, I'll give you forty thousand as compensation. Half each. That's fair, right?"

Christine stomped hard on his foot, her eyes flashing with displeasure.

I stared at Joe. My heart felt like it had been packed in ice.

Forty thousand.

He thought all I'd paid off in thirteen years was the eighty-thousand-dollar principal.

He said it so casually.

The reality had nearly killed me.

A laugh escaped me. I didn't even know why I was laughing.

"You want to settle accounts with me?"

"Dad's debt was eighty thousand. With interest, it came to a hundred and nine."

"Thirteen years. I paid back every cent of that hundred and nine thousand dollars."

Joe's eyes went wide. He raised his voice like a child throwing a tantrum. "Fine! Then I'll give you fifty-five thousand! Happy now? When did you become so petty, sis?!"

The words hit me like a fist to the throat. My chest tightened.

Thirteen years of swallowed grievances surged up all at once.

"Your tuition. Ten years of living expenses. Your wedding fund. The ceremony costs. Every last dollar came from me skipping meals, maxing out credit cards, taking out loans I couldn't afford."

"I still owe the bank five thousand dollars. You want to do the math on that?"

"I took care of Dad for a full year. Changed his bedpans. Bathed him. Drove him to every appointment. Crushed his pills. Sat up with him through the night. How do you want to calculate that?"

Joe stuck out his chin, neck rigid with defiance. "You're the oldest. Isn't that what you're supposed to do?"

"You're digging up ancient history—what do you actually want?"

"There is nothing I'm supposed to do!"

I grabbed my suitcase. I couldn't stand another second in this house.

"I just want to live for myself. Once. Is that so much to ask?"

I was almost through the door when Christine's voice cut through the room, sharp and commanding.

"You can't leave!"

My feet stopped. I turned to look at her.

"Why can't I?"

She cradled her belly, chin lifted, righteous as a judge handing down a verdict.

"Your father said it on his deathbed—he wanted you to take care of Mom. That was his dying wish!"

"The dead deserve respect. If you abandon your mother, your father will never rest in peace!"

The rain, the wind, the cold—it all caught up to me at once. Pain split through my skull in waves, and my body swayed before I could stop it.

I gripped the handle of my suitcase and steadied myself.

"Dad made another promise before that one. He said whoever took care of him through his illness would inherit everything. He broke that promise."

"Now the inheritance is in your hands. That means Mom is your responsibility."

"Besides—she's not just my mother."

Christine's frown deepened, her expression hardening into the look of someone staring at a criminal who'd started a fire for no reason.

"You can't be this selfish. We're family. You shouldn't be keeping score like this."

Me? Selfish? Family?

When they needed something from me, we were family.

When they didn't, I was the free nanny and the walking ATM.

The anger on Joe's face melted into something that looked almost like hurt.

"Sis, I'm about to be a father. I've got a kid to raise, a household to run. You have any idea how much pressure that is? Where am I supposed to find the energy to look after Mom?"

"Christine just gave you a nephew—your own flesh and blood. She's the hero of this family. If you leave, who's going to take care of her during her recovery?"

I stared at him, every word deliberate.

"Joe. How much do you make a month?"

Joe shifted his weight, mumbling.

"Forty-five hundred..."

"Forty-five hundred?"

My nails dug into my palms. My voice shook despite myself.

"You graduated college four years ago, and you bring home forty-five hundred a month. I tested into college and never got to go. I went straight to work instead, averaging seven thousand a month in debt payments alone, plus another two thousand to cover Mom and Dad's living expenses."

"When you were in school, it was even worse. On top of the debt, I was subsidizing their household."

"After you graduated, I saved up to pay for your wedding and kept supporting Mom and Dad. So tell me—who carried the heavier load?"

Joe's expression froze. His mouth opened, then closed. Nothing came out.

Christine bit her lip, eyes brimming with resentment.

I paused, then continued.

"You're about to collect half a million in demolition compensation. You can easily hire a nanny to look after Mom and your wife and baby. There's no reason to chain me here."

That was when my mother grabbed Dad's memorial portrait, sank to the floor, and started wailing.

"Oh, you hear that? You see what your heartless daughter is doing? You're barely cold in the ground and she's already abandoning me! How am I supposed to go on?"

I looked at her. Something blunt and serrated dragged itself across my heart.

"Mom. Look at me. Really look." My voice cracked. "I'm thirty-two years old. Half my hair has gone white. People on the street think I'm fifty."

"I'm not saying I don't want to take care of you. I'm saying I can't anymore. I have nothing left to give."

I turned and walked out of the old house without looking back. They called after me. I didn't stop.

I found a job as a sales clerk at a supermarket in the city. Room and board included. The pay wasn't much, but for the first time in years, I slept through the night.

On the third day, my mother called. Her voice was frantic.

"Blanche! Christine was so upset by what you did that she hemorrhaged during delivery! She's barely hanging on! You get back here right now!"