I sipped my wine.
Harper looked directly at me.
“Dad said you might deploy again next year.”
Thomas didn’t deny it.
“You don’t even use all that space,” Harper continued. “We need your house for the baby.”
Not could we stay temporarily.
Not could we discuss it.
Need.
Mom smiled as though the outcome had already been decided.
Naomi would give in.
Naomi always did.
I looked around the table.
Three people waiting for compliance.
One man staring at his plate.
Finally, I wiped my mouth.
“How exactly does that concern me?”
The room went silent.
Mom blinked.
“Naomi.”
“No,” I said calmly. “I’m trying to understand the logic here.”
Harper stiffened.
“You know what? Forget it.”
“No, seriously.”
I put down my napkin.
“You two chose an apartment you can’t afford. You’re having a baby you apparently don’t have room for. And somehow this becomes my emergency.”
Chase shifted.
“It’s about family.”
“Interesting,” I said, “because usually when people want something from me, they ask before painting my walls.”
Dad briefly looked up, then back down.
Harper’s eyes filled with tears.
“I cannot believe you hate this baby already.”
She had skipped straight from disagreement to accusing me of hating her unborn child.
Mom immediately reached for her hand.
“Sweetheart, calm down.”
“No,” Harper said, voice cracking dramatically. “She’s acting like we’re strangers.”
Strangers usually respected boundaries better.
I stood, took a folded $20 bill from my jacket, and placed it beside the wine.
“For dinner,” I said.
Mom stared at it.
“Naomi, sit back down.”
I was already leaving.
Behind me, Harper cried louder. Chase muttered something.
Dad remained silent.
Outside, the cold air cleared my head.
For the first time all week, I wasn’t tired.
I was alert.
Sunday dinner had revealed something important.
Harper and Chase weren’t embarrassed.
They were urgent.
Embarrassed people soften requests and negotiate.
Urgent people jump directly to entitlement because time is running out.
At 7:12 the next morning, I sat at my kitchen counter with coffee and two laptops.
The smell of paint still lingered upstairs.
I stopped treating the situation like family drama.
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