Chapter 14 - The London Calling
Two weeks after we returned from Park City—our living room now graced with a heavy crystal glass award that read Special Jury Mention: Best Independent Narrative Short—the formal contract from Sterling & Croft Media arrived via international courier.
The terms were astonishing. Not only was Anna being cast as the lead in their upcoming feature film, The Lighthouse Between Worlds, but the production company had also included a guaranteed educational stipend, first-class travel arrangements for both of us to Scotland for a three-month shoot starting in September, and a generous upfront talent fee that completely transformed our financial security.
I sat at the kitchen table, reading through the legal clauses with a fine-toothed comb, half-expecting to find a catch. There was none. Julian Sterling, the veteran executive producer who had written the initial letter, had followed through on every single promise.
My phone, which I had kept on silent for weeks, suddenly buzzed against the wooden grain.
I glanced at the screen. A text from an unknown number. Then another.
Curious, I picked it up and tapped open the messaging app. It was a group chat that my brother Marcus had apparently resurrected.
Marcus: Eleanor, please. Mom has been calling me every day in tears. Can we just talk?Rachel: El, be reasonable. We said things we shouldn't have said in the heat of the moment. But dragging the family name through international press? You're destroying us over a misunderstanding.Mom: Please, darling. Family is everything. Don't let petty disagreements tear us apart.
I stared at the screen, a cold, detached amusement washing over me.
For seven years, they had defined "family" as an exclusive country club where dues were paid in blind obedience, quiet compliance, and financial subsidies. When I stopped paying their bills and refused to let them erase my daughter, I had been "voted out." But now that Anna’s face was gracing entertainment blogs, indie film reviews, and international casting announcements, the definition of family had suddenly expanded to include us once more.
I didn't yell. I didn't type out a furious paragraph explaining exactly why they were hypocrites.
Instead, I tapped the screen, selected Settings, and hit Leave Group.
May you like
Before the system could process it, I blocked Marcus’s number. Then Rachel’s. Then my mother’s.
I laid the phone back down on the table, walked over to the kitchen window, and watched the spring rain tap gently against the glass. The silence that followed wasn't lonely; it was the peaceful quiet of a door firmly locked against the past.
