The voicemail continued.
“He showed us paperwork and said we have thirty days to leave! How could you bring a stranger into our house?”
Our house.
I let the message finish before calling back.
My mother answered instantly.
“What have you done?! That man says he owns the house!”
“Yes,” I replied calmly.
“Because he does.”
“You can’t do that!”
“I can.”
There was a pause.
Then my father’s voice faintly asked what was happening.
My mother whispered angrily into the phone.
“You’re destroying this family.”
I took a slow breath.
Then finally said the words they never expected to hear.
“It stopped being my family the moment you tried to take my home.”
