PART 14 – Chloe’s Messages Reminded Me How Much I Had Given Up for My Little Sister Without Ever Asking Her to Notice

Later that morning, I received a private message from Chloe.

I recognized her name immediately.

For years, I had been the person she called whenever something went wrong.

When she needed help with textbooks, she called me.

When her food plan became difficult to manage, she called me.

When she worried about the cost of her sorority expenses, she called me.

I had rarely asked questions.

I simply wanted her to be okay.

Her message began with a question.

Chloe: Are you really angry with me?

I looked at the screen.

I didn't know how to answer that without explaining three years of feelings.

I started typing.

Then I stopped.

I remembered the message about my holiday shift.

I remembered her talking about the Gucci bag.

I remembered the laughing reactions.

I finally wrote that I was hurt by what she had said.

I told her I had helped her because I loved her.

I had never expected her to treat my work and money like something she could automatically claim.

She responded quickly.

Chloe: I didn't mean it like that.

I read those words.

Maybe she hadn't thought about what the message would sound like to me.

Maybe she had believed I would never see it.

But that didn't make it disappear.

I asked her whether she remembered the money I had sent for her expenses.

She said she did.

Then she explained that she had always thought I was comfortable financially because I worked at the hospital.

I looked around my apartment.

My secondhand furniture.

My inexpensive groceries.

The shoes I had postponed replacing.

Comfortable.

I wondered how she had reached that conclusion.

I wrote that having a job didn't mean I had unlimited money.

I worked long hours.

I paid my own rent.

I had expenses too.

And every amount I sent came from somewhere.

There was a pause.

Then Chloe asked whether I was going to stop helping her completely.

That question hurt.

Not because I wanted to start paying again.

Because it was the first thing she seemed concerned about.

She didn't ask how I was feeling.

She didn't ask whether I had slept.

She didn't ask what it had been like to discover the messages.

She wanted to know whether the money was gone.

I put the phone down.

I sat on the couch and looked at the small table beside it.

I had once imagined buying a nicer apartment.

Nothing extravagant.

Just another room and a little more space.

I had postponed that idea so many times.

I wondered how different my savings might have looked if I had not spent so much time rescuing people who laughed about me afterward.

My phone vibrated again.

Chloe had sent another message.

She said she didn't want us to become strangers.

I read it carefully.

Neither did I.

But I couldn't keep pretending that being sisters meant I had to pay for everything.

I told her I loved her, but things couldn't continue the way they had before.

Then I ended the conversation.

I didn't block her.

I didn't insult her.

I simply stopped offering money.

For the first time, I allowed my little sister to be responsible for her own expenses.

Click here to continue reading: PART 15: David Wanted Me to Forget His Lie About the Electricity, But the Four Hundred Dollars Had Become Something I Could Never Unsee