They Left Me Out Of The Picture So I Created My Own Chapter 16
I didn’t answer.
The next day, my father called again.
The moment I picked up, he asked, his voice tight with controlled anger, “What did you mean in that interview, saying your family taught you independence? Our neighbors and my coworkers are already talking, acting like we mistreated you.”
“I was only stating facts.”
“We fed you, we clothed you—how is that not support?”
“When I discovered the 529 college fund my mother left me had been transferred to Sadie, I learned a valuable lesson in financial independence.”
His breath caught in his throat.
I didn’t give him a chance to interrupt.
“And the night I won the state youth art award, the rest of the family was on vacation in Wisconsin. I took the train to Chicago by myself to accept it. So yes, I learned how to rely on myself.”
The line went completely silent.
The choices he had once made so casually sounded different when spoken aloud, one by one. There was no room left in them for a plausible excuse.
After a long moment, his voice came back, unexpectedly soft.
“Are you coming home for Christmas?”
“We’ll see.”
“Your stepmother… Lauren says she misses you.”
I looked at the copy of the *Chicago Tribune* on my desk, my name printed across the top of the arts section. On my computer, the WGN interview was still paused on my face.
So that’s what their missing me looked like. It had to wait until newspapers and television stations saw me first.
“I know,” I said, closing the paper. “I have class. I’m hanging up.”