At Christmas dinner, my dad smiled and said, “You paid off the $720,000 mortgage loan… but the house is your older sister’s.” I froze, turned to my
My father answered before I could ring. He greeted me without warmth. Inside, Emily—my stepsister—sat scrolling through her phone, barely looking up. My stepmother fussed nervously over dinner. Only Aunt Martha embraced me, her eyes full of worry and guilt. Dinner was strained. No one mentioned the $720,000 mortgage I’d paid off eight months earlier…