At 3:47 am my father summoned me for “a family emergency,” but when I saw the red convertible in the driveway and they asked for access to my accounts, I understood that they didn’t want to help me… they wanted to keep everything for themselves.

“We need access to your bank accounts today, Kelsey, because this isn’t a suggestion and it is for your own benefit.” My father’s text message had jolted me awake at 3:47 in the morning with a command to be at the family gathering by 10:00 sharp.

My father never communicated like that since he was usually a man of brief phone calls and long, heavy silences. A message sent before the sun was even up could only mean that something massive was happening and I knew it would not be in my favor.

At 9:55, I pulled my Honda Civic into the driveway of the house where I grew up in an expensive neighborhood of Scottsdale. Everything looked exactly the same from the white walls to the purple flowers, but there was a new addition to the circular driveway.

A red Mercedes convertible sat there with a shine that looked like desperate luxury hiding behind temporary license plates. My sister Brianna could not afford a vehicle like that on her own income.

My mother opened the door before I could even knock on the wood. “Come in, honey,” she said with a smile that felt far too sweet as she told me they were waiting in the office.

We were not meeting in the kitchen or the dining room, but in my father’s private office where he always acted like a king. Randall sat behind his enormous dark wood desk with his hands clasped while Brianna sat cross-legged in red heels looking like an offended queen.

My mother sat stiffly in a chair next to the bookcase as if she already knew how this meeting would end. “Sit down, Kelsey,” my father ordered without offering a hug or any kind of greeting.

“First of all, we want to tell you that we are proud of what you achieved with your company since not just anyone can do that,” he began. I remembered how he refused to give me a five thousand dollar loan for my prototype seven years ago because he called my work a fantasy.

“Thank you,” I replied curtly while I waited for the real reason they called me here. My mother took a deep breath and said they were concerned that I had so much money and so little experience with a fortune of that size.

“I have been managing budgets, investors, and contracts for years, Mom,” I said while I tried not to laugh at her comment. My father raised his hand in an annoyed gesture and told me that family is different because family protects you while business people only want a commission.