I sat perfectly still and stared at the screen, knowing this was the moment everyone uses to try and break your boundaries. People always ask what you would do if they got sick or if they died.
Maybe it was real this time, and maybe she really was in an ambulance and wanted to see me because she was afraid. That was a sad thought, but sadness does not erase decades of emotional abuse.
Sadness doesn’t turn a betrayal into an accident, and it doesn’t negate the boundaries that saved my life. I put the phone face down on the counter and went back to my painting.
In the emergency room, we perform triage because you cannot use all your resources on everyone at once. You learn that some patients can be saved, while others will only drain the resources meant for those with hope.
My family taught me that lesson the hard way, but they taught it well. Sometimes surviving means you have to cut ties with your own blood.
The phone vibrated again, but I didn’t answer it. I just kept painting, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t feel a single ounce of guilt.
THE END.
