I was carrying the Christmas cake when I overheard my mother say, “Don’t bother asking her. Let your sister have the apartment for free.”
I had spent so long being what everyone else needed me to be that I had forgotten how to want anything for myself.
“That’s the problem,” Dr. Eze said gently. “You’ve been living your life as a transaction. If I do this, they will love me. If I achieve this, they will approve. But love and approval are not things you earn. They are things you receive. And if the people who should give them to you freely are making you pay for them, then you are not in a family. You are in a business arrangement.”
I sat with those words for a long time.
Then I went home and made a decision.
The next morning, I called my mother.
She answered on the first ring.
“Ada! Finally! Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Chioma is devastated. The children are crying. Your father is furious—”
“Mom,” I said calmly. “I need you to listen to me.”
“Listen? You should be the one listening—”
“Mom. I am going to say this once. If you interrupt me, I will hang up and you will not hear from me again.”
Silence.
