I hadn’t seen my mother in years—not since the day she chose my brother over me.

I was ten when she made that decision. She had married my stepfather, had my half-brother, and suddenly, I became an inconvenience. A reminder of a past she didn’t want to acknowledge. She told my grandmother I was a burden, something she didn’t have the time or patience for.

Without hesitation, Grandma took me in. Not out of obligation, but out of love—and perhaps fear. Fear that if she didn’t, I would end up in the system, unwanted and discarded like an old toy no one wanted to play with anymore.

At eleven, Grandma insisted we go back for a “family dinner.” Maybe, deep down, I hoped things had changed, that my mother would look at me and see more than just a mistake she regretted. But when we arrived, all I saw was a woman who had moved on.

She was doting on my brother, running her fingers through his hair, pressing kisses onto his forehead. When she finally glanced my way, there was no warmth in her eyes.

“Hey, Mom,” I said, forcing a smile.

Her lips pursed slightly. “Oh. You’re here.”

That was it. No embrace, no excitement, no sign that my presence mattered.

Still, I had tried. I had spent hours working on a handmade card for her, carefully coloring every corner, making sure it was perfect. It was my way of saying, I still love you. Do you love me?

I held it out with shaking hands. “I made this for you.”

She barely looked at it before handing it to my brother. “Here, honey. Something for you.”

I blinked. “I—I made that for you.”

She waved me off, already busy fixing my brother’s collar. “Oh, what would I need it for? I have everything I want.”

Everything. Except me.

That was the last time I tried.

She never reached out after that. Eventually, she moved away, and I learned to live without the idea of a mother. I had Grandma, and she was more than enough. She was my rock, my guiding light. She made sure I knew my worth, that I wasn’t a mistake.

But then, time did what time does—it took her away, too.

I was thirty-two when she passed. It was the kind of loss that made the world feel emptier, like a vital piece of me had been ripped away. I spent the next few days sorting through her things, reliving old memories, trying to grasp the idea that she was really gone.

And then, there was a knock at the door.

I wiped my face, half-expecting it to be a neighbor or an old friend of Grandma’s. Instead, when I opened it, my body went rigid.

It was her.

My mother stood there, as if she had any right to be in front of me now, after all these years. She didn’t look sad. She didn’t even look guilty.

She got straight to the point.

“We need to talk about the house.”

I blinked, still struggling to process that she was actually here. “…What?”

She sighed like I was the one being difficult. “It should be sold, obviously. And the money should be split fairly. Three ways—between you, me, and your brother.”

I let out a sharp laugh, not because I found it funny, but because the audacity of it was staggering.

“You think you deserve a share?” I asked, voice colder than I expected.

She tilted her head as if I were the irrational one. “Of course. She was my mother, and she had two grandchildren. That money should be shared fairly.”

Fairly.

The word hung in the air between us, thick with irony.

I almost pitied her, the way she stood there, so sure she had a claim. But I wasn’t ten anymore. I wasn’t the child desperately seeking her approval.

I smiled. Lucky for me, Grandma thought ahead.

We went to her attorney the next day, and he told us what I already knew.

The will would be read at the funeral.

And so, the woman who abandoned me—who saw me as nothing more than an inconvenience—was forced to sit in front of a room full of people who did love me, and Grandma, waiting to hear what she was about to get.

The attorney cleared his throat and began reading.

“To my beloved grandchild, I leave everything. My house, my savings, my belongings. Everything I have built over my lifetime goes to the one who was there for me, who loved me when I had nothing left to give.”

A murmur spread through the room, but I only watched her. Her face was frozen, her fingers curling into fists.

The attorney continued.

“To my daughter, who made it clear long ago that family is a choice—one she did not make—I leave nothing. She has everything she ever wanted, as she once said.”

My mother’s face turned red.

“To my grandson, her child, I wish him well. But my home, my life’s work, belongs to the one who never abandoned me.”

The silence that followed was deafening.

My mother stood abruptly, cheeks burning. She didn’t even wait until the will was fully read. She turned on her heel and stormed out of the funeral home, her heels clicking sharply against the floor.

That was the last time I saw her.

And, for the first time in my life, I didn’t feel like I had lost anything.

I had already won.

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