Paid in Full for Family Love novel Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Eight p.m. I opened Twitch.

My username was already doxxed. Within thirty seconds, the chat was terminal.

[is this the psycho daughter??]

[EMILY ANDERSON WE FOUND YOU]

[you destroyed your own family you worthless bitch]

[literally what is the point of you]

[kill yourself]

I watched the words scroll. My face was calm. My chest was quiet.

Five minutes. Viewers hit six figures.

I leaned into the mic.

“Hi. I’m Emily Anderson.”

I paused.

“You probably know me as that ungrateful bitch who trashed her brother’s house because her family went on vacation without her. The one who left her pregnant sister-in-law and elderly mom with nowhere to live.”

“Before Christmas? I thought I was the luckiest person alive.”

I kept my voice low. Even.

“My dad died when I was little. Money was tight. But my mom never let me feel like we were going without.”

“On cold nights, she;d tuck my freezing feet against her stomach to warm them up. When the power went out in summer, she’d s there fanning me for hours, sweating through her shirt, never complaining.”

“In third grade, I got straight As and begged her for this overpriced backpack from the mall. It was way out of our budget. But she looked at the price tag, looked at me, and put it in the cart anyway.”

Chapter 10

My voice caught. “Her own shoes had holes in them. She’d just glue the soles back on. Kept wearing them.”

I blinked. “I swore when I grew up, I’d buy her the nicest shoes in the world.”

The chat didn’t care.

[oh great, here comes the sympathy act]

[you still DESTROYED THEIR HOUSE]

[nobody gives a shit about your childhood, you monster]

[irrelevant. irredeemable. disgusting.]

I ignored it.

“My brother was good to me too. When I was little and some older kids tried to shake me down for lunch money, Mike heard about it.”

“He was this scrawny kid, couldn’t have weighed a hundred pounds. But he showed up with a baseball bat and swung like he wasn’t afraid of anything.”

My throat tightened.

“He got the shit beat out of him. But he looked at me and said, ‘Don’t worry, Em. I got

you,'”

“I swore I’d spend my whole life paying him back. Paying them both back. All the love they gave me, I’d return it double,”

The chat mocked me.

[oh yeah you really paid him back, REAL nice

[love language: property destruction]

[can’t wait to hear how this is somehow not her fault]

I breathed.

“I know how this sounds. Girl says she’s grateful. Girl says she loves her family. Girl tears her family’s house apart.”

Chapter 10

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I tilted my head.

[Doesn’t really add up, does it? Makes you think.]

[why? because you’re a sociopath]

[why??? because you’re a BAD PERSON]`

[why? who cares why. you did it. You’re guilty ]

I let the chat burn.

Then I said,

“Everyone’s been calling me. Texting. Doxxing. I lost my job today. My landlord’s evicting me. Strangers yell at me on the street”

I paused.

“All because of a video my family posted. Very emotional. Very well-acted.”

I looked into the camera.

“I’m not here to cry. I’m not here to beg for sympathy. I’m here to show you

something.”

I pulled up the first image.

“This is the bill my sister-in-law Jen handed ne the day after Christmas. Two nights at my ‘family home,’ Two hundred a night for lodging. A hundred per meal.”

I zoomed in. The handwriting was clear,

“Total: a thousand dollar.”

The chat flickered. Hesitated.

[…is that photoshopped]

[wait what the fuck]

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