Part 3Let The Favorite Daughter Save You

Doris instantly beamed, praising Sandra for her thoughtfulness. She then turned her gaze of pure annoyance back to me.

“See? Your sister is just better than you. Now go! Sandra already started the oven; all you have to do is the main courses.”

Sandra added, “Don’t forget to make Mom a plate of pasta. Hand-made, of course. She likes those best.”

I picked up the kitchen table and flipped it. Plates, utensils, and Sandra’s carefully placed fruit bowl crashed to the floor.

“Why on earth would I give you a birthday gift? Why would I cook for any of you? We are no longer related!”

Doris was so enraged she hit me across the face. “You dare defy me? I am your mother! It’s my birthday! You will honor your mother!”

I covered my stinging cheek, then whirled around, grabbed a handful of Sandra’s hair, and slapped her twice across the face. Doris screamed.

“Alexandra! Are you insane?”

“I am! You drove me insane! I’m telling you right now, my daughter and I are done with the Callahans. If you ever, ever touch my daughter again, or lay another finger on me, I will double the abuse onto Sandra. Try me.”

I pulled Luna toward the door. Doris let out a cold laugh, utterly composed now.

“No relationship? Alexandra, don’t you forget who raised you. Your father and I worked hard to feed you, clothe you, and send you to school. Now you want to walk away? You can leave once you pay back every penny we spent on you!”

I froze, turning back to look at her. “Fine. You want to settle accounts? Let’s settle them, properly.”

I hired a lawyer immediately. We compiled every expense they claimed to have paid for my first eighteen years.

When the final tally came to barely sixty-five thousand dollars, Sandra scoffed.

“You bribed the lawyer. Sixty-five thousand for eighteen years? College alone cost more than that! Mom and Dad gave us three thousand a month in college!”

Doris nervously tugged at Sandra’s sleeve. Her eyes betrayed a flash of guilt.

My heart was cold. When I got into college, they tried to force me to drop out and get a job.

“You’re smarter than your sister. You’ll make money without a degree. Sandra is delicate and not as sharp. She’d be ruined without a degree.”

To get my education, I took out student loans and worked three jobs, clawing my way through to graduation, saving my career from being aborted.

“My college was paid for with student loans. They paid for nothing,” I told the lawyer. “However, I have receipts for over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars I subsidized this family in the last ten years. That is far more than sixty-five thousand.”

“Also, this house. It’s titled in both my name and Doris’s, but I paid the entire mortgage. I want her compelled to pay me back.”

I glanced at the gold bracelet on Sandra’s wrist. “That bracelet was a gift I purchased for my mother. I have receipts. It is now on Sandra’s wrist. I reasonably suspect theft. I want it back.”

Sandra was furious. “Mom gave it to me! You’re just jealous!”

When the lawyer confirmed my demands were reasonable, Doris panicked.

“Why should I pay her back? She’s my daughter! Buying a house for her mother is her duty! If I want to give her gifts to Sandra, that’s my right!”

“And what is your relationship with Ms. Callahan?” the lawyer asked calmly. “You, as parents, were simply fulfilling your duty by raising a child. You forced her into existence; she didn’t ask to be born.”

The lawyer looked at them with thinly veiled disgust. “Furthermore, Ms. Callahan has repaid you more than ten times over. Isn’t that enough? Mrs. Callahan, you must stop being so transparently biased. They are both your children.”

Doris was speechless, flushed with shame.

She tried to pretend nothing happened, but I wasn't having it. I was direct: if they refused to return the house value and the bracelet, I would sue. We would drag this through court and see who ended up looking worse.

“Give it to her!” Walter’s face was beet red. “I will not be humiliated. I won’t have my own daughter sue me!”

“Alexandra, you heartless snake! I wish I’d never given birth to you! I still have one daughter left. I don’t need you to survive!”