MY DAD STARTED CHARGING ME $250 A MONTH IN RENT THE DAY I TURNED 18. FIVE YEARS LATER, AFTER HIS FUNERAL, HIS BEST FRIEND HANDED ME A TAPED-UP BOX AND SAID, “HE WANTED YOU TO OPEN THIS ONLY AFTER HE WAS GONE.”
My dad started charging me $250 a month for my room the day I turned eighteen.
For five years I hated him a little for it.
Then he died, and after the funeral his best friend handed me a box sealed with packing tape and said my father had wanted me to open it only once he was gone.
I opened it expecting an insult.
What was inside dropped me into my father’s chair and broke something open in me that is still, to this day, not fully healed.
Chapter 1: Two Hundred Fifty Dollars
My mom died when I was nine.
After that, it was just me and Dad in a quiet house that never quite warmed up again.
