My mom organized a family dinner with 33 relatives, and I was ignored like an outsider. She suddenly stood up, ripped my photos off the wall, and threw them into the trash, shouting, “You leech! You’ve sucked this family dry!” My dad backed her up, yelling, “Pay back everything we spent raising you—what a waste!” My sister sneered and shoved me out the door while the whole family hurled insults at me. I said nothing. I just walked away.

My name is Harper. I am twenty-seven years old. And the night my life finally snapped in half didn’t start with a scream or a car crash. It started with a family dinner I never asked for, in a house that was no longer a home.