And they were hoping I would help provide it.
I looked at both of them.
“Have either of you ever actually told her what she did at my wedding was wrong?”
Neither answered.
Not one word.
I nodded.
“That’s what I thought.”
Mom started saying my name.
I stopped her.
“I’ve spent years absorbing the damage because everybody decided I could handle it. I’m done.”
“Vera—”
“No. You wanted to know why I’m cold? This is why. Every time Dalia breaks something, you ask me to understand why she threw it.”
Dad’s face tightened.
“She’s family.”
“So am I.”
That quieted the room.
I walked toward the door and opened it.
“You need to leave.”
Mom looked back at me from the hallway as if she expected me to change my mind before the elevator arrived.
I didn’t.
Dalia kept the podcast going for a few more episodes.
From what I heard secondhand, I became the emotionally unavailable sister.
The person who couldn’t accept Dalia’s growth.
But eventually the attention slowed.
The comments stopped arriving as quickly.
Sponsors disappeared.
The podcast sputtered out.
Micah and I rarely discussed it.
Instead, we booked a trip.
Somewhere far away.
Somewhere warm.
Somewhere nobody knew our family.
Two days before we left, I was standing with Micah buying luggage tags when my phone buzzed.
One message from Dalia.
A single fire emoji.
Nothing else.
I showed Micah.
He looked at it, then at me.
“Perfect,” he said. “Let it burn.”
I blocked her number.
Then we got on the plane.
We spent a week in a bungalow over the water.
There was a little sign inside that said:
“No clocks. Let time be yours again.”
For seven days, we didn’t talk about Dalia once.
Not her tuition.
Not the wedding.
Not the podcast.
Not my parents.
Nothing.
The first morning, I woke up and instinctively reached for my phone before remembering there was nobody I needed to rescue.
I put it back down.
Micah and I drank coffee looking out over the water.
That was it.
No emergency.
No argument.
No demand.
Just morning.
When we came home, we made more changes.
We moved farther out, closer to trees than traffic.
I closed old accounts.