“Look, Mom told me what happened. She didn’t mean it like that. You know how she gets when she’s stressed.”
There it was. The classic family translation. She emotionally hurt you, but don’t make a mess of it.
“She said, ‘No one needs me,’” I replied. “She meant it.”
He insisted. “She just doesn’t want drama this year. She’s tired. You know, she’s been doing this alone for years.”
I laughed, and it came out sharp.
“Doing what alone? Ordering me around?”
He ignored that.
“Anyway, even if you’re not coming, can you at least help with the usual stuff? The group chats, the reminders, the playlist.”
“You’re kidding,” I cut in. “So, I’m not needed, but my work still is.”
Silence, then a frustrated exhale.
“Olivia, don’t be dramatic. This isn’t about you.”
I felt my fingers dig into the edge of the counter.
“Really? Because she literally made it about me.”
Ryan kept going like he was reading from a script Mom had approved.
“Mom’s worried. She thinks you’re pulling away. She’s the one who paid for your college, your apartment deposit, everything. At least you could make Christmas easy on her.”
A bitter taste filled my mouth.
“Paid for my college,” I repeated. “You mean the college I dropped out of after one semester because there wasn’t enough money for me to go back?”
“Oh my God, not this again,” he muttered. “You know things were tight. She did what she had to do. She even used your fund when Dad’s business went south. For all of us. Stop acting like you’re the only victim.”
My brain stalled.
“What fund?”
There was a tiny pause, like he realized too late what he’d said.
“Nothing. Look, forget it. Just can you send the reminder in the group? People are asking about the start time.”
But I wasn’t listening anymore. My heart didn’t sink. It hardened.
There had been a fund. Money meant for me. Money I’d never seen.
“I have to go,” I said quietly, and hung up before he could spin another story.
Later that day, I dug through old emails, files, anything that might prove my instincts right. I found an old message from a bank we used to go to when I was a teenager. An account in my name, opened when I was a kid.
Attached was a note: college savings for Olivia only.
The last transaction showed the balance drained five years ago. Same year, Ryan suddenly got bailed out of a mess with his credit cards.