After My Parents Died, My Aunt Took My Inheritance and Gave Me a Mattress on the Floor – Years Later, She Knocked on My Door

When my parents died, my aunt said she was “saving” me. I slept on a mattress on the floor and grew up believing I owed her my life—until, years later, she came back to collect.

I was ten when my parents died.

It was winter. Snow everywhere.

One of those nights adults later describe as “terrible road conditions,” like that explains anything. All I knew was that my mom, Claire, and my dad, Michael, left the house and didn’t come back.

After the funeral, my dad’s sister, Linda, showed up. She hugged me in front of people.

Long, loud hugs. The kind meant to be seen.

“I’ll take Ethan,” she said. “Of course I will.”

That’s how Linda liked to phrase it.

Taking me. Like a package. Like charity.

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