I didn’t lift a finger to save the stage where so much of my childhood misery had played out.

Chapter 14 — Nothing

Doreen, true to form, had abandoned Frances the moment the credit cards started declining.

Without our mother’s accounts to fund her, she’d been forced into a cramped two-bedroom apartment across the state and a retail job, while Presley took out loans for community college and complained about it constantly.

My mother lived now in a small state-subsidized facility on the edge of the city, entirely alone — no golden child on Sundays, no catered parties, just the sterile quiet of a bed she’d made herself.

I stared at the foreclosure alert for a moment, and I searched my heart for what I felt, and found exactly what I’d fought so long to reach.