Chapter 2
My dad bought that house for my grandparents after Grandma Mercer died.
Not because Grandpa Richard deserved it.
Because Dad was loyal.
That was his weakness and his goodness, depending on who was using it.
The house sat in a quiet Ohio suburb with maple trees along the sidewalks, white trim around the windows, a wooden staircase that creaked in winter, and coat hooks by the front door where my dad used to hang my pink backpack when I was little.
To me, it was not Grandpa’s house.
It was the place Dad kept trying to turn into family.
After Grandma died, Richard became colder.
Not sadder.
Colder.
He criticized everything.
Dad’s work schedule.
My grades.
My clothes.
My mother’s memory.
My mom had died when I was eleven, and Grandpa talked about her like grief had made her inconvenient.
Dad never let him do it in front of me.
At least, not when he heard.
Then Aunt Denise moved back to Ohio.
She said her divorce had ruined her.
She said Cody needed stability.
She said family should help family.
Grandpa Richard loved that sentence when it benefited people he liked.
Dad paid for repairs.
Dad covered property taxes.
Dad paid utilities when Grandpa “forgot.”
Dad bought groceries when Denise and Cody started spending weekends there.
Then weeks.
Then months.
Slowly, the house began changing.
My books were moved from the living room shelf.
My photos disappeared from the hallway.
Cody started using the upstairs bathroom I had always used.
Aunt Denise began calling my bedroom “the big room.”
Not Emma’s room.
The big room.
I told Dad once.
He frowned.
“I’ll handle it.”
He did talk to Grandpa.
For two weeks, everyone behaved.
Then Dad had to leave for a work project in Cincinnati that unexpectedly turned into three weeks.
He told me I could stay at the house because my school was nearby and because he trusted family.
That was the mistake.
Three days after he left, Aunt Denise told Cody he could “temporarily” use my desk.
Two days later, my clothes were moved into laundry baskets.
The next morning, I came home from school and found Cody sitting on my bed with my laptop open.
“What are you doing?”
He grinned.
“Grandpa said this is my room now.”
I laughed because I thought he was joking.
May you like
He was not.
Read the full story 👉 Daniel had funded the Mercer family home for years, but while he was away, Denise and Richard began turning Emma’s room over to Cody.
