They Left Me Out of Their Group So I'll Leave Them Out of My Life novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Left Out

I didn't cry in the car.

I drove home with the radio off and parked under the dry cleaner's sign.

I sat there until my hands were steady.

Then I went upstairs, sat at my kitchen table, and opened my phone.

My mother was the first contact I blocked.

My father was the second.

I held my thumb over his name for a while before I pressed it.

I blocked my aunt too, and the church group.

It took four minutes.

I took the magnet off my refrigerator, the one my mother gave me for my first apartment, and the photo of the four of us at the lake, and put them both in the junk drawer.

I wasn't angry.

I'd expected to be.

What I felt was quiet.

I opened my banking app and did the last thing.

The nine thousand two hundred and eighteen dollars in Grandma's account went into a new account at a different bank, with only my name on it.

It was a small button.

The app asked me if I was sure.

I told it yes for the second time in a month.

At nine there was a knock on my door.

It was a quiet knock, two taps.

I looked through the peephole and was glad it was him.

Nate stood in the hall holding two paper bags that smelled of fried rice.

I opened the door.

"I took a chance," he said. "I didn't know if you'd eaten."

"I haven't."

"I'm bad at this."

I stepped aside and he came in and looked around my kitchen.

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