Aunt Bonnie was already grabbing her car keys. “We’re coming to get you. Pack a bag with the essentials. You can stay here too.”
The drive to my parents’ house was tense. Aunt Bonnie drove like a woman on a mission, her knuckles white on the steering wheel. I sat in the passenger seat texting Kate updates on where we were. Then she stopped responding, and my anxiety shot through the roof. When we pulled into the driveway, I felt sick. I hadn’t been back since the day they threw me out. The porch light was on. Both my parents’ cars were there.
“Stay in the car,” Aunt Bonnie said as she put it in park.
“No way,” I said. “Kate’s my sister. I’m coming with you.”
She looked like she wanted to argue, but in the end she just nodded. We walked up to the door together, and she rang the bell. The shouting inside stopped immediately. A second later, my dad yanked the door open. His face moved from anger to surprise to a fake smile as soon as he saw Aunt Bonnie.
“Bonnie, what a surprise,” he said, completely ignoring me beside her. “What brings you by so late?”
“Cut the crap, Marcus,” Aunt Bonnie said coldly. “We’re here for Kate. She called us.”
My mom appeared behind him, her face blotchy from crying or screaming or both. “This is a family matter, Bonnie. You shouldn’t be involved.”
“I am family,” Aunt Bonnie shot back. “And so is Lily, though you seem to have forgotten that. Where’s Kate?”
“She’s in her room having a teenage tantrum,” my dad said dismissively. “She can come out when she’s ready to discuss her options rationally.”
The way he said options made my skin crawl. I knew exactly which option he thought was rational.
“Let me go get her,” I said, already moving toward the stairs.
My mom tried to block me. “You don’t live here anymore, Lily. You can’t just—”
“Move,” Aunt Bonnie said in such a commanding tone that my mother actually stepped aside.
I ran upstairs to Kate’s room, my old room too, and knocked softly.
“Kate, it’s me. Open up.”
The door cracked open. Her face was streaked with tears. The moment she saw me, she threw the door wide and hugged me hard.
“Thank God you’re here,” she whispered. “They’ve lost their minds. Dad says I have to get an abortion or he’ll throw me out. Mom keeps crying about what people at church will say.”
“Pack your stuff,” I told her. “You’re coming to stay with me and Aunt Bonnie.”
Kate nodded and stuffed clothes and toiletries into a duffel bag. I helped her, grabbing the things she forgot: her laptop charger, her favorite sweater, even the stuffed bear she had given me years ago that had somehow survived the purge of my things. When we came back downstairs, my parents were still arguing with Aunt Bonnie in the entryway.
“You can’t just take her,” my mom was saying. “She’s sixteen. She’s still a minor.”
“Watch me,” Aunt Bonnie said. “Unless you want me to call Child Protective Services and report how you’ve treated both your daughters, I suggest you step aside.”
My dad’s face turned an alarming shade of red. “Is that a threat? You have no proof of anything.”
“I have Lily’s testimony,” Aunt Bonnie said calmly. “And now I have evidence of you trying to force Kate into a medical procedure against her will. Do you really want to test me on this, Marcus?”
My parents exchanged a look. For the first time in my life, I saw something close to fear in their eyes.
“Kate can make her own decisions when she turns eighteen,” my mom said, changing tactics. “For now, she stays here where we can take care of her.”
“Take care of her like you took care of me?” I blurted. “By treating her like garbage if she doesn’t do exactly what you want?”
My dad finally looked at me with a glare. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. We’ve always provided for both of you.”
“Providing food and shelter is the bare minimum,” I shot back. “You never loved me. And now that Kate’s done something you don’t approve of, you’re treating her the same way.”
Kate stepped forward, clutching her bag. “I’m going with Aunt Bonnie and Lily. I’ll come back when you’re ready to support me no matter what I decide about my baby.”
My mom started crying again, but it felt manipulative, not real. “Kate, please think about your future.”
“I am thinking about my future,” Kate said firmly. “And right now, it’s not here.”
We walked out together. My parents were too stunned to physically stop us. As we drove away, I looked back and saw them standing in the doorway, watching us go. They looked small somehow. Pathetic. Not at all like the towering figures of authority they had always been in my mind.
The next few days were an adjustment. Kate took my bed while I slept on the pullout couch. Aunt Bonnie’s apartment felt crowded with three people in it, but it also felt warm and safe in a way our parents’ house never had. For the first two days, my parents called Kate nonstop, switching between threats and tearful pleas for her to come home. Eventually she turned her phone off just to get some peace. They didn’t call me once.
On the third day, I was alone in the apartment while Aunt Bonnie was at work and Kate was at a follow-up doctor’s appointment. The doorbell rang. When I looked through the peephole, I nearly had a heart attack. My parents were standing there. I called Aunt Bonnie immediately.
“They’re here,” I whispered. “Mom and Dad are at the door.”
“Don’t let them in,” she said firmly. “I’m leaving work now. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
The doorbell rang again, then pounding.
“Lily, we know you’re in there,” my dad shouted. “Open this door right now.”
I stayed quiet, hoping they’d give up and leave. They didn’t. A few minutes later, I heard a key in the lock. The door swung open, and there they were. My dad held up a key.
“Aunt Bonnie gave us a spare once when she went on vacation,” he explained, his voice suddenly calm. “In case of an emergency with her plants and mail.”
I backed away. “This isn’t an emergency. You need to leave.”
My mom stepped inside, looking around the apartment. “Where’s Kate? We need to talk to her.”
