The pages were still warm when I placed them inside a folder and drove home. Fiona was waiting in the kitchen, arms crossed, clearly expecting an apology. Instead, I set the folder on the table. “This is the new arrangement,” I said. She laughed at first, until she realized I wasn’t asking for permission. “You’ve had my house, my time, and my money for three months. That ends tonight.”
Fiona’s face hardened. “Mom and Dad are going to be furious.” “They can be,” I replied. “But they don’t own this house.” She called them immediately, expecting them to pressure me into backing down. This time, I answered every accusation with the same sentence: “I’m not abandoning my sister. I’m refusing to be her unpaid parent.” Then I showed them the bank statement and the schedule I had documented.
