I wanted to say no. I wanted to hang up the phone and tell them to figure it out themselves. But then I remembered the satisfaction of standing my ground before.
Maybe, just maybe, this was the final test, and I was going to pass it with flying colors.
I didn’t reply right away. Instead, I just texted back, “I’ll be there in an hour.”
I pulled up to my parents house, gripping the steering will tighter than I needed to. I knew something was off. The whole urgent thing didn’t sit right with me.
If it were really that important, they would have told me over the phone. But I was curious, curious to see just how far they would go to manipulate me this time.
As I stepped out of my car, I took a deep breath, bracing myself for whatever nonsense they were about to throw at me.
I rang the doorbell, and after a few moments, my mom opened the door with a wide, overly enthusiastic smile.
“Oh, Jess, you actually came,” she said, as if we hadn’t just spent the last few months at odds.
I narrowed my eyes.
“Yeah, you said it was urgent.”
She waved her hand dismissively.
“Come in, come in. Wek explain inside.”
I hesitated before stepping into the house. It smelled the same as always, vanilla candles and my dad’s old cologne lingering in the air.
It should have felt comforting, but instead it made me uneasy, like I was stepping into a trap.
I followed my mom into the living room, where my dad and Alex were already waiting. My dad was seated in his old recliner, arms crossed, looking annoyed. Alex sat on the couch, scrolling through his phone like he couldn’t care less that I was there.
I took a seat across from them.
“All right,” I said, cutting straight to the point. “What so urgent?”
My dad cleared his throat.
“Well, first, we just wanted to see you, sweetheart. It’s been too long.”
I let out a dry laugh.
“Right, because you were so desperate to see me that you couldn’t just say that on the phone.”
My mom shot my dad a look, and he sighed.
“Fine. We wanted to talk to you about Grandpa’s house.”
I leaned back in my chair, arms crossed.
