My Sister Mocked Me for Not Having a “Real Job” at a Family Party — So I Quietly Set My Executive Badge on the Table and Let Her Termination Email Explain the Rest

Serena leaned back, satisfied, mistaking restraint for surrender, and the room exhaled awkwardly as conversation resumed in fragments, people eager to escape the moment they had just witnessed without acknowledging it.

The cake was brought out. Candles were lit. Phones were raised.

Someone made a joke about calories.

Serena lifted her glass again, smiling broadly now, basking in what she believed was victory, until her phone vibrated against her palm.

She glanced down casually at first.

Then she stopped moving.

Her smile didn’t fall all at once but faded in stages, confusion creasing her brow, then disbelief tightening her jaw, then a slow, draining pallor spreading across her face as she reread the email, her thumb scrolling up and down as if repetition might change the meaning.

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