I told them I was done with the money, with the manipulation, with the games. That if they wanted to keep funding her life, they could, but it wouldn’t come from me anymore. I said they’d done a great job raising a daughter who believes consequences don’t exist. Then I asked them to leave. They hesitated, but they left.
Bethany didn’t contact me after that, but her podcast kept going. Episode two was about “narcissistic siblings.” Episode three was titled “When They Make You Look Challenging.” Emily and I laughed at that one.
A few days later, I checked the lease on our apartment. We had 8 months left. I looked at our savings, ran the numbers, and told Emily we should take a trip—something far, something warm, something that didn’t have anything to do with any of this. She smiled.
The next morning, we booked two roundtrip flights to the Maldives. We were leaving in 6 weeks. No family, no drama, just peace. The kind of peace that finally feels earned.