My sister kicked me out of the house after our father died, but she didn’t know he planned it.

A smiling little girl | Source: Midjourney

“Dawn, you were the dawn of a new beginning, my dear,” he said. “You were the greatest surprise of my life and I welcomed you with everything I had.”

Maybe that was part of it. Maybe that’s why Charlotte behaved like that.

By the time I was old enough to really get to know her, Charlotte had already grown distant from me. She didn’t see me as a sister, not really. She saw me more as an inconvenience in her life. A child who comes in where I’m not wanted.

Close-up of a young woman | Source: Close-up of a young woman mid-journey
| Source: Midjourney

She never read me bedtime stories or played with me. When Dad went out for ice cream with us, she barely looked up from her phone.

But somehow I still felt important to her.

That she would be there when it counted.

But I was wrong.

A young girl is sitting on her bed | Source: Midjourney
A young girl is sitting on her bed | Source: Midjourney

And then Dad died. And everything in my life fell apart.

Two weeks after the funeral, we sat in the lawyer’s office. Charlotte was well dressed, but she sat there and hardly looked sad. She looked bored. She seemed to be wasting her time. She checked her nails while we waited for Dad’s will to be read.

And me?

People at a funeral | Source: People
at a funeral mid-journey | Source: Midjourney

I sat stiffly next to her with my hands folded in my lap. I didn’t know what to feel or think except that I was drowning in grief.

The lawyer cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry, ladies,” he said. “I had to take that call. Now let’s get back to business.”

A young woman sits in an office | Source: Midjourney
A young woman sits in an office | Source: Midjourney

Charlotte looked up and finally noticed his presence.

“The house goes back to Charlotte,” he said.

I felt sick. I didn’t want to deny it… But why?

Why is my father doing this to me?

A teenager sits at a desk | Source