Chapter 4

Mom's temper flared. "You're just a kid. When did you learn to be so petty? You don't even understand what it means to respect your elders. And you're always complaining that your grandma doesn't treat you the same way she treats your cousin. This is exactly why. You're so difficult that nobody wants to be around you.

"Look at yourself. Your own family can't stand you. What makes you think anyone out there is going to treat you any better?"

I stopped walking and turned around. "Grandma doesn't love me because I'm difficult? Do you actually believe that? When has it ever been about the grandkid? Grandparents play favorites based on which of their own children they like more, and everything just flows down from there.

"So is it really that nobody likes me, or is it that nobody respects you, and I get treated like I'm invisible because of it?"

That one landed. Mom flinched like I had stepped on a nerve. "What are you talking about?"

I pressed on, saying, "My cousin is the favorite because Grandma likes Uncle Oliver, because Uncle Oliver actually stands up for his own kid. And Grandma is fine feeding me rotten apples because she looks down on you, which means she can get away with treating your son like garbage.

"But you'd rather lie to yourself. You think just because you close your eyes and pretend it's not happening, maybe nobody will notice that they've never respected you."

Mom was shaking with anger, but I just turned and left.

I told Dad everything the moment I got home. He went straight to Mom and asked for a divorce. He also demanded that she get the money back, since that sum was their joint savings and belonged to both of them as marital assets.

Mom felt a twinge of guilt, but she did not take him seriously. She assumed Dad was only using divorce as a threat to stop her from spending money on Grandma. She tried reasoning with him using the same tired arguments, but Dad would not budge. He wanted a divorce, custody, and division of their marital assets.

When Mom realized that nothing she said was getting through, she got spiteful about it. She started openly funneling money to Grandma and Uncle Oliver, going to the hospital every day to wait on them hand and foot, buying them expensive supplements, and making sure Dad could see all of it.

She thought he would cave, that he would worry about the money draining away and sit down to talk things out with her like a reasonable person.

However, Dad had already made up his mind. While Mom put on her show, he was quietly looking for a place to live after the divorce, consulting lawyers, and studying family law online. He was preparing in earnest.

After a while, Mom's little performance ran out of steam. Neither Dad nor I gave her the reaction she wanted, and she seemed to lose interest in the act.

Grandma's side, however, had not given up on the kidney. After several failed attempts to pressure me directly, they started mobilizing relatives to guilt me into it.

Unfortunately for them, guilt did not work on someone who had stopped feeling obligated.

When they texted me, I left them on read. When they tried to find me in person, I told them I was in class. I was in my senior year, after all. My schedule was packed. There was no way I could leave the school during the day, and that was the truth.

This went on for a while. Then, one day, Mom came to me again.

"Cody, come have dinner at Grandma's with me. Ever since your uncle got sick, we haven't all gotten together. Grandma specifically asked for you to come this time. After what you said to her last time, she didn't even hold it against you. This time, she was generous enough to invite you to dinner. All you have to do is go and apologize, and she'll let it go."

Listening to Mom rattle all of this off as though the matter were already settled, I found myself wondering when exactly I had agreed to go with her.