He pulled out two bills from his wallet and threw them in my face.
“Two hundred bucks. That’s enough to get you by until you find a job. Don’t say I didn’t help you.”
The floodgates of memory burst open.
In my past life, I’d stood there listening to those harsh words, watching my brother’s smug smile and my stepmother’s fake tears, my chest burning with anger and humiliation.
I tried to argue. I said I’d just graduated and needed time to find work, that things weren’t as easy as they thought in today’s world.
I even mentioned my student loans—the very ones my father had forced me to take, saying they’d teach me responsibility and discipline.
But all that earned me was a thunderous slap.
The blow was hard and heavy—it stunned me completely.
My cheek swelled instantly, my ears rang and the taste of blood filled my mouth. I stared at my father in disbelief. The same man who once carried me on his shoulders now looked at me with nothing but cold contempt.
Linda pretended to cry out in shock and stepped forward to stop him, while Leroy nearly burst out laughing.
That was the moment my dignity shattered completely—and the start of the miserable life I lived before.
I was thrown out of the house with nothing but humiliation and two hundred dollars to my name, forced into a life of endless struggle… until the day I dropped dead delivering food.
But this time, I didn’t argue.
I drew in a deep breath, lifted my head and calmly met my father’s furious gaze.
“Okay, Dad. I understand. But before I go, there’s one thing I want to ask you.”
My voice was steady and composed. “When Leroy graduates, will you treat him the same way you’re treating me now?” I paused. “Will you kick him out too, hand him two hundred dollars and tell him to make it on his own?”
For a moment, the living room fell into the deathly silence.
My father froze, then his face darkened with rage.
Leroy’s smile stiffened; he instinctively straightened his back.
Then Linda’s sharp voice cut through the air.
“Leo Crowe! How could you say something like that? What does this have to do with your brother?”
Like a provoked lion, my father lunged forward.
“You ungrateful brat!”
He didn’t slap me this time. Instead, he snatched my suitcase from my hand with a violent tug. Then, as if tossing out the trash, he hurled it with all his strength through the open manor door. The suitcase hit the cement ground outside with a dull thud.