The Helicopter
The reservation at Le Bernardin had been made three months in advance for my father’s sixtieth birthday. Eight family members were seated at a table that could have accommodated twelve. The empty chairs served as a silent testimony to the relationships this family had already severed.
“To family,” my older brother, Derek—the Harvard MBA and family pride—said, raising his glass. His eyes, sharp and dismissive, found mine. “The people who stick together, who share the same values.”
I stayed silent, taking a sip of the eight-hundred-dollar Bordeaux. I’d noticed my father wince slightly when he ordered it—a clear tell that the financial facade they all desperately maintained was cracking.
“Speaking of family,” my mother—the impeccable corporate wife—interjected, her voice turning to ice.
This was the signal. The evening’s main event—my public humiliation—was beginning.
“Sophia. We’ve been patient with your… phase… for far too long.”
I set down my wine glass and met her gaze. I knew what was coming. I’d known for weeks.
“Your ‘mysterious job’ you won’t talk about,” she said, using air quotes. “Your ten-year-old car. Your studio apartment downtown. We see you’re barely getting by, yet you refuse our help, refuse to find a suitable husband.”
“Maybe I like my car,” I said quietly. “And I’m not ‘barely getting by.’”
“There’s no shame in struggling, Sophia,” my younger sister, Melissa—the recently engaged one—chimed in. “But there is shame in pretending you’re not.”
The irony was that I’d paid for her law school tuition just two years ago. Not that she remembered. Or perhaps she did, and chose to forget.
“I think it’s time for some tough love,” Mom announced, her voice hardening. “We can’t continue to enable this behavior. These delusions.”
“What delusions?”
“That you can live however you want without consequences. That you don’t need this family. We’ve decided that until you get your life together…”
She paused, and Derek, as the appointed spokesman, picked up the thread.
“We think it’s best if you don’t attend family gatherings for a while.”
The air in my lungs froze. “You’re… uninviting me?”
“We’re giving you space to grow up,” my mother snapped.
I looked to my father, searching for any sign of support. He looked away, suddenly fascinated by his dessert plate.
The story doesn’t end here –
it continues on the next page.
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