My dad didn’t in.sult me quietly. He turned it into a toast. And the part that still haunts me is that nobody stopped him.

The Oslo Medallion was the award my father had chased for thirty years without success, and the public announcement was scheduled for the hospital gala on Christmas Eve. My father would be in the front row as a VIP and he had no idea that my name would be on the screen while he campaigned for the director position.

Back at the dinner table, my father raised his wineglass in amusement and said the best gift would be if I disappeared from the family entirely. When Spencer laughed and my uncle Walter began clapping, I stood up and folded my napkin because I refused to look disordered while they degraded me.

“You want me gone?” I asked my father while looking him directly in the eye, and he told me it would be the best gift I could give them.

I walked out of the house and left my key on the hall table, then I got into my car and accepted the executive offer from Garrett Palmer immediately. Once I reached my apartment, I opened my laptop and began executing a plan to remove myself from every mechanism holding their version of family together.