“Maya! What the hell are you doing?!” My mother’s shrill, panicked voice pierced through the speaker, so loud I had to hold the phone an inch away from my ear. “Where are you? Your room is empty!”
“I moved out,” I replied simply. “I got the Director promotion. I needed to be closer to the office.”
“I don’t care about your stupid office!” she shrieked. “Why did the bank just call Arthur about a missed payment on Chloe’s BMW? They said the account on file was rejected! And why is the Wi-Fi completely down in the house? I can’t stream anything! Did your bank accounts get hacked?”
She didn’t sound worried about me. She sounded angry, annoyed, demanding that I fix the glitches in her comfortable life immediately. She was treating me like a malfunctioning ATM machine.
“My accounts are perfectly fine, Mom,” I said softly, swirling the red wine in my glass.
“Then why haven’t the bills been paid?” she demanded, her voice dripping with entitlement. “Fix it right now, Maya! Chloe is having a meltdown because she can’t upload her spa photos to Instagram!”
“Why haven’t the bills been paid?” I repeated her question slowly, letting the silence hang in the air for a moment. “Because I stopped paying for them.”
The line went dead quiet for a fraction of a second as her brain struggled to process the concept.
“What?!” she shrieked, the volume returning tenfold. “Are you crazy? You know Chloe needs her car to get around! She has networking events! The late fees are going to ruin her credit score! Log in and pay the installment immediately!”
“I can’t do that, Mom,” I said, looking down at the glittering city below. “I am a nuisance, remember? That’s what Dad called me right before he slapped the taste out of my mouth. A nuisance.”
“Maya, don’t start this,” my mother groaned, a dismissive, patronizing tone entering her voice. “Are you still throwing a tantrum over that silly car thing the other night? Your father just lost his temper because you were being so demanding. Don’t be so petty! You are the older sister! You have a duty to help this family!”
“I don’t want my nuisance money to stain the perfect, serene life of your obedient, golden daughter,” I mocked her, repeating my father’s exact phrasing.
“Maya, stop acting like a child and turn the internet back on!” she commanded.
“No, Mom,” I smiled, a genuine expression of joy. “I’m not throwing a tantrum. I’m just permanently cutting the parasites out of my life.”
Suddenly, there was a scuffling sound on the other end of the line, followed by the deep, furious roar of my father. He had snatched the phone from my mother’s hand.
“How dare you speak to your mother that way, you insolent brat?!” Arthur bellowed into the receiver. “You think you can just abandon your responsibilities? I will come down to your company tomorrow morning and teach you a lesson about respect!”
