My Family Left Me Alone on a Holiday – Until One Knock Turned the Night Upside Down

“What happened? Are you okay?”

Michael hugged me. Emma had tears in her eyes.

“Seeing as you’re all here, we could still do dinner.

The food’s probably still good.”

Michael’s face immediately hardened.

“Did you stage this? Did you prank us with an arrest call to force us to show up for dinner?”

“What? Of course not.”

“It seems convenient,” Sarah said quietly.

“We all get here right when you’re being released.”

I looked at my children and grandchildren, the people I’d waited all day to see. I’d just wanted to have dinner with them like we used to, but now I realized that our family was broken in a way that one dinner couldn’t fix.

“I don’t need to force anyone to eat dinner with me.

“And if that’s what it takes to get you all to come together for a holiday, then I don’t want you here.”

I turned and walked toward Linda’s car.

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