"Gabriel... if those two families could scrape together that kind of money, would they have needed to borrow a marital home from us in the first place?"
"Gabriel, there is something fundamentally wrong with your mindset. You're becoming increasingly selfish."
I met her accusation head-on. "Mom, did you even investigate their current living situation? Compared to them, we're the ones who qualify as a 'poor household.'"
She scoffed. Waved her hand like I was speaking gibberish. She and Dad had *seen* the young couple's hardships with their own eyes. Why else would they have decided to sponsor them in the first place?
A bitter taste coated my tongue. I didn't have the energy to explain.
"Fine. Keep thinking that way." My voice went flat. "Seems like the truth doesn't matter to you anymore."
She took it as a tantrum. Just Gabriel saying hurtful things to get a rise out of her.
The living room hit me with a wall of tension the moment I stepped back in. Dad sat on the sofa, expression thunderous.
"What did that ungrateful wretch say?" he demanded. "He isn't willing to apologize, is he?"
Uncle Mason stepped between us, palms raised. "You two need to calm down. Houses aren't cheap. Can't the family discuss this rationally first?"
"I am his father!" Dad's roar rattled the windows. "Are you saying I can't even make this kind of decision?"
Mom walked in and repeated my words verbatim—adding extra emphasis to the young couple's *pitiful circumstances*.
Uncle Mason's brow furrowed. "I remember you first sponsored them eight or nine years ago. How long has it been since you actually visited their home?"
Dad slammed his phone down on the coffee table. "Over eight years. You think they struck it rich in that time? When your sister-in-law and I went back then, they were living in a dilapidated single-story shack. Alex's family of five was squeezed into a space barely over two hundred square feet. Maya's situation was marginally better, but not by much."
These were the images burned into their minds.
From nearly a decade ago.
"Exactly," Mom chimed in. "They looked absolutely destitute. If you ask me, we raised an ingrate. If Gabriel won't cooperate, we'll just scrape together the money ourselves and give Alex his share."
The problem was, my parents had long since drained their savings. They had only managed to borrow two hundred thousand from my uncle and a few other relatives.