Meanwhile, things weren’t going as smoothly back at the family house. Marcus’s job turned out to be less stable than he’d boasted, and Sandra’s business ventures weren’t yielding the returns she’d promised my parents. The mortgage loomed larger as the months passed, and tensions at home rose. I heard snippets through sporadic family group chats and from my younger sister, who seemed caught in the middle.

Six months to the day after I’d left, I heard a knock on my apartment door. I wasn’t expecting anyone, so I approached it with caution. When I opened it, I found my parents standing there, looking awkward and slightly humbled.