Kicked Out For My Sister’s Baby I Returned Rich Chapter 05
The day after I left, Regina moved into my old apartment.
She packed everything I hadn’t taken into cardboard boxes, then wandered around holding up paint swatches, insisting the couch, the bed frame, and the dining table all had to go so the whole place could be turned into a nursery.
Trent sat by the window the whole time, head bowed over his phone.
“Want to go look at furniture this weekend?” Regina asked.
“Work’s busy. Some other time.”
Regina slammed the wardrobe door shut in irritation.
On the third night, the internet went out.
Marlene rebooted the router twice and still couldn’t get a signal. Out of pure habit, she shouted toward the stairs, “Thea, call the internet company!”
No one answered.
Only then did she remember I was gone.
Customer service told her the auto-pay was linked to Thea Holloway’s credit card. The cardholder had canceled all payments, and the family plan had been shut down.
Marlene got so angry she smacked the router again and again.
When Gordon came home from work, he was carrying another letter from the city.
The garbage collection fee was overdue, and penalties were already stacking up.
Out of habit, he went downstairs to push the letter through the mail slot.
But the door opened from the inside. Regina stood there in my old robe, looking at him with impatience.
“Dad, what are you doing?”
Gordon stood there stiffly for a few seconds, letter in hand, then turned and stalked back upstairs.
Trent’s troubles were mounting, too.
At work, he logged in to the benefits portal and found his health insurance card had expired. HR told him the policy had been under my employer-sponsored family plan. Once the primary account holder left, his coverage ended.
At noon, he went to his usual coffee shop and held out his phone to the barista.
“I’m redeeming points for a latte.”
At noon, he went to his usual coffee shop and held out his phone to the barista.
“I’m redeeming points for a latte.”
The barista scanned it twice, then shook her head.
“Sorry, this family account has been closed. By the way, how come Thea hasn’t been around lately?”
Trent pulled his phone back, his face tightening.
“She’s out of town for work.”
On the sixth day, he finally cracked and called me.
The call went straight to voicemail.
He called again.
Same result.
Trent pulled up every social media platform he could think of and searched my name. All my usual accounts had been deleted. The few pages left were either blank or set to private.
He sent an email and got an automated bounce-back.
He even borrowed a coworker’s phone to dial my number, only to hear the same cold recording: the number you have dialed is no longer in service.
Trent stared at the screen, his palms breaking out in sweat.
At last, one thing was undeniable.
I wasn’t sulking. I wasn’t waiting for him to come and set things right.
I had severed every possible line of contact for good.