For eight years, I paid my parents’ mortgage with a clear deal: I’d get a larger share when the house was sold. But after my sister moved back home and convinced them to leave her the house, everything changed. Furious at the betrayal, I made a bold move that turned the family upside down.
For eight years, I’d been the silent backbone of our family, quietly covering the mortgage and property taxes on my parents’ house after they retired.
A woman with a faint smile standing near a window | Source: Midjourney
After all, my parents had sacrificed so much for me and my sister, Susan. They’d depleted their retirement accounts putting both of us through college. I got a good job with my degree, so it only seemed fair to help them out now.
But it wasn’t charity — we had an agreement. The deal was simple: I’d help with the house now, and when it sold, I’d get a larger share to make up for my investment. Clean, straightforward, and fair.
“We’ll figure it out,” I told her, folding her expensive clothes into the dresser. “That’s what family does.”
A woman holding neatly folded clothes | Source: Pexels
But it didn’t take long for the old patterns to emerge. See, Susan has never been good with money. She’d always lived paycheck to paycheck, spending all her money on maintaining a comfortable lifestyle without putting anything away in savings.
“We’ll figure it out,” I told her, folding her expensive clothes into the dresser. “That’s what family does.”
A woman holding neatly folded clothes | Source: Pexels
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But it didn’t take long for the old patterns to emerge. See, Susan has never been good with money. She’d always lived paycheck to paycheck, spending all her money on maintaining a comfortable lifestyle without putting anything away in savings.
