BREAKING POINT

Tori**

“Why the hell are you here?”

My Dad’s voice thunders through the living room before I even step fully into the house, and I freeze in the doorway.

“D…dad,” my hands tremble as I clutch the hospital envelope against my chest. “Please, I just need you to listen to me—“

“Don’t you dare call me that!”

His eyes rake over me with utter disgust, like I’m something unpleasant he accidentally stepped on. “I told you and your mother never to show up here again. So what the fuck are you doing at my house? Huh?”

The words stab deeper than I expected, but I swallow the pain and step forward anyway.

“I know,” my voice cracks, “I know I’m not the daughter you always wanted.”

That part has never been a secret.

My father sighs impatiently, already turning away like I’m wasting his time.

“But please, Mum is really sick and I need all the help I can get.”

He stops, and for one fragile second, hope sparks in my chest. Then he turns back slowly, and his face quickly turns back to that same cold and completely unbothered look.

“GET. THE. FUCK. OUT. OF. MY. HOUSE!”

“Dad—”

“I said don’t call me that, dammit!” He barks. “You lost the right to utter that word years ago.”

I force back the tears threatening to spill down my face now, taking one step forward towards him. “Please, Dad…just listen—“

“Listen?” A short, cruel laughter tears out of him. “To what exactly? More of your stupid excuses? Oh let me guess, you came to beg for money?”

“Mum is dying,” I snap back, my voice trembling. “She needs a transplant. We need—”

“I don’t care.” His tone is final, commanding, “Your mother has made her choices and so have you too. So neither of you is my problem anymore.”

The tears begin to spill uncontrollably down my face.

“She’s your wife,” I choke out.

“Was.” He steps closer, his huge frame towering over mine, “Until she decided to trap me with a child I never wanted, and turned into a burden I had to carry for eighteen years.”

“I tried, Dad.” I whisper, “I tried to be everything you wanted—”

“Well, you failed woefully!” 

“Look at you, pathetic. Weak and useless just like your mother. You both are nothing but liabilities to my life.”

My knees buckle underneath, but I catch myself on the doorframe. “All I need from you is to loan us the money for the surgery deposit. I’ll pay you back. I swear—”

“With what?” He snorts. Your good grades? Your little library job? You think I’m stupid enough to throw good money on you two?”

“Mum needs a kidney transplant.” My hands are trembling as I open the envelope and pull out the papers, “The doctors say if we don’t get the surgery soon—”

“I don’t care.”

“W-what?”

“I said I don’t give a damn,” his voice is calm now, almost bored. “Your mother stopped being my problem the moment she decided not to abort you.”

“Dad, please…” I step closer, desperation rising in my chest, “We’ve already spent everything we have on dialysis and the hospital bills are piling up. If she doesn’t get the surgery—“

“Then she dies.”

The words come out of his mouth so casually that for a moment I wonder if I heard him wrong. Without thinking, I reach for his hand, but he jerks away as if my touch burns him.

“Don’t touch me!”

The force of his shove sends me stumbling backward. I lose my balance and crash against the wall as pain shoots through my shoulder, but it’s nothing compared to the pain spreading through my chest.

“It would actually make my life easier if your stupid mother finally disappeared from this world.”

“Y…you can’t say such a thing, Dad, she’s your wife for crying out loud!”

“That woman has been nothing but a burden since the day I met her,” he snaps back coldly. “If she dies, I can finally move on with my life and marry the woman I actually want.”

What the—

What the actual fuck is he saying to me right now?

“You don’t mean that.”

He does not utter a word. Instead, he walks to the door and yanks it open. “Get the fuck out of my house.”

“No…wait!”

I rush forward and grab his arm.

“Please, Dad, just lend me the money. I swear I’ll pay you back, and I’ll do anything you want me to.” My voice cracks as tears spill down my face, “Mum is going to die if I don’t help her.”

“That’s not my problem.”

Before I can open my mouth to utter another word, his hand grips my arm and drags me toward the door.

“Dad, please—!!”

He shoves me outside.

Hard.

I stumble onto the concrete steps, and the door slams shut in my face. For a moment, I just sit there, my chest rising and falling heavily as tears stream down my cheeks.

“Great,” I mutter to myself. “Just great.”

“This is what you get for stooping so low, Tori.” 

Mum is lying in a hospital bed right now, and her body is getting weaker with every passing day. Dialysis is barely keeping her alive, and the doctors were clear.

Without a kidney transplant soon…

She won’t survive.

But the surgery costs more money than I’ve ever seen in my life, and we’re already drowning in debt from the treatments. Banks refused to lend to us, and even the loan sharks I approached laughed in my face.

Fuck!

What am I going to do now?

Another sob escapes me, but I wipe my eyes with the sleeve of my hoodie and stare at my phone. That is when it hits me—

Mia!

An option I swore I would never consider.

I met her two months ago at the karaoke bar downtown where I had gone alone one evening, sat in the back, drinking a soda, and tried not to drown myself in my problems. Mia was waitressing and that was when she noticed me. 

“You look like you’re carrying the world,” she’d said.

I had told her enough that night…not everything though, but she had listened to every bit of it. Then pulled out a napkin and wrote down her number. 

“If you ever need real money…fast money…call me. I know a place where you can make more than enough. But it comes at the cost of selling your body.”

“I’m not… I can’t do that.”

“Trust me girl, you can. Men act like they want slim figures in public, but in private? They want soft, real curves. And you’re just perfect for the body type they're looking for.”

“I’m not selling my body.”

“Not yet,” she’d said gently. “But desperation has a way of making you do things you don’t want to.”

I hadn’t believed her then.

Hell, I still don't believe I’m perfect for that kind of job. My body had always felt wrong—soft hips, full chest, thighs that touched, and a stomach that rolled flat when I sat.

Boys at college looked past me, all because I’m always hiding in these damn baggy sweaters and joggers.

Without hesitation, I pull out my phone and force my numb fingers to begin scrolling all the way down to her name.

Mia.

I pressed the call.

It rang once. Twice.

“Hey Mia…it’s me, Tori.” 

I didn’t wait for her to speak.

“Tori?” Her voice cut through the loud music in the background. “Uhmm, I’m kinda busy right now, can I call you—”

“I’m ready,” I cut in before she could finish, my voice trembling but firm. “The job you told me about that night. I’m in….whatever it takes.”