“My sister stays and you pay… or you leave”: I lived for two years with the man who said he loved me, until one morning he tried to kick me out of my own home and forgot one detail that destroyed his life.

She walked across my expensive rug with wet shoes and collapsed onto my leather sofa with a dramatic sigh. Spencer immediately ran over to give her a hug and told her that she could finally relax now that she was home.

Paige lowered her glasses and gave me a fake smile that only people who live off others can truly master. “Hi, Mal, thanks for being so sweet about this,” she said while acting like she was doing me a favor.

I stayed silent as Spencer reached into his pocket and handed me a folded piece of paper. It was a list he had printed using my own office equipment while I was sleeping.

The list included bullet points for a weekly allowance, a luxury gym membership, a salon budget, and even a wardrobe makeover. At the bottom, someone had written “self care extras” in bright pink ink.

Everything finally started to make sense in that moment. I thought about all the bills I covered because his payments were always late and the expensive dinners I paid for every weekend.

“She is staying here,” Spencer said while misinterpreting my silence as a sign of my surrender. “You can either pay for her or you can start packing your own bags.”