My father didn’t answer. However, Sarah yelled through tears, “That’s right! The first one to ask for help is a no good, good for nothing piece of crap. May they get str by lightning and may their soul be forever damned!”
“Now get out of here, are you trying to give my mom a heart attack?”
I smiled, satisfied. I then grabbed the test results from r pocket and throw them on the envelope full of money.
“That’s good, Sarah, make sure you remember what you
esid
“I don’t want this money, it might come in handy!”
Chapter 2
3
I should have been happy when I left the Johnsons.
The dilemma that had been
eating me up all afternoon was finally resolved. I could now feel good about not terminating my pregnancy to donate bone marrow.
And I could finally stop trying to please the people who’d
never truly been family to
- me.
But as I laughed, tears started streaming down my face.
I sat on the empty bus stop bench, watching everyone get on their buses heading
home.
I was the only one who didn’t have a place to go.
Suddenly, my phone buzzed. Messages started pouring in
from the family aroun chat
<
11:08
from the family group chat, all sixty–some people in it.
I opened it and saw a message my dad had sent:
“Our ungrateful daughter, Ava, has insulted us, acted inappropriately, and we’ve cut her out of our family. From now on, any loans she
tries to take out using our
name, or any financial
assistance she seeks using
our name, is not our responsibility. Consider this fair warning!”
Reading that message made my blood run cold.
I couldn’t even imagine how desperate I would have felt if
I had been the one with
leukemia.
Robert Johnson was
ruthless.
Luckily, the corner he had painted himself into would
be the death of him.
His announcement had
instantly turned the once- quiet family chat into a
2006
814
<
11:08
buzzing hive of gossip.
Everyone was trying to
figure out what the hell had happened.
My aunt Carol tried to probe for details: “Kids who aren’t raised in the house are hard to handle, eh? It’s a parent’s fault if the kid is bad, don’t try to say you have nothing to do with it.‘
93
My uncle Dan tried to play peacemaker: “Don’t be so impulsive, Robert. Blood is thicker than water. You’re all family, let things cool down.”
Seeing that no one was
taking his announcement
seriously, my brother, Matt,
chimed in.
“Ava’s sick and she was
trying to force Sarah to
donate bone marrow. Risk
her life!
“She’s miserable, so she wanted to make my sister
miserable. She was even trying to guilt trip mom and dad so that they would lose
824
<
both of their kids.”
Matt’s post kicked the chat
into high gear.
“I thought donating bone marrow wasn’t that risky?”
someone asked.
“If it’s not risky, maybe she just wants to save her own life, and wasn’t trying to hurt Sarah or guilt trip your parents?” another person said.
“The poor girl, if it’s not a huge risk, they should
donate if they can.”
When it seemed like the
conversation was getting out
of hand, Sarah herself
stepped in.
“Guys, we shouldn’t be airing our family’s dirty laundry in
public, but my dad only
posted that to keep
everyone from being taken
advantage of.”
“Whether bone marrow
donation is risky or not is
still up in the air, but Ava will
try to get someone to
11:08
S
“Dad just wanted to warn everyone in case one of you donated and ended up
having some kind of bad
reaction. Then it wouldn’t be
clear who should pay.”
Matt added to Sarah’s
