Hi, I’m Sarah.

Today I’m going to read you the story of Celeste, which is titled like this:

“My parents demanded I sell my house to pay off my sister’s $150,000 debt after they cut me out 5 years ago. Family helps family. I refused, so they broke in on me and destroyed everything. But they had no idea this house was…”

Well, let’s go.

So, here I am, Celeste, 33 years old, sitting in my home office on what I thought would be just another regular Tuesday morning. I work as a programmer for this big tech company, and honestly, the money is pretty damn good.

Four years ago, I finally bit the bullet and bought this house with a mortgage. Best decision ever. I set up my office here, and now I can work from home thanks to the company’s remote work policies.

Life has been going pretty well lately. About a year ago, I met this amazing guy online. His name is Marcus, and he lives in another state. We’ve been doing the whole long-distance thing. He comes to visit me; I go visit him.

It’s been incredible, and I’m actually thinking about selling my house and moving to his state so we can be together for real. I mean, I can work from anywhere, so why not?

I was just typing away on some code when I heard that familiar email ping. Usually, I ignore emails when I’m in the zone, but something made me check. It was sent to my old email address, the one I barely use anymore.

The sender made my stomach drop. Mom.

I haven’t talked to my family in 5 years. Five whole years. And there’s a damn good reason for that.

Let me back up and tell you about my lovely family situation.

I have parents — mom and dad — both in their early 60s now. Then there’s my sister Sarah, who’s three years older than me, so she’s 36. Sarah’s married to this guy named David, and honestly, he’s just as much of a mess as she is.

Five years ago, things were different. I was still talking to all of them, doing the whole family thing. I was making good money even then, living in a rented apartment but saving up like crazy to buy a house.

I had over $120,000 saved up. I was so proud of that number. My plan was to put down a huge down payment so my monthly mortgage would be manageable. Every Saturday, I’d go to my parents’ house for dinner. It was this tradition we had.

I actually looked forward to it back then, if you can believe that. But then came that one Saturday that changed everything.

I walked into my parents’ house, and Sarah and David were already there, talking excitedly to Mom and Dad about something. I said hi to everyone and sat down at the table.

That’s when Mom turned to me with this big smile and said, “Sarah’s planning to open her own business, and we just know she’s going to be tremendously successful.”

I smiled back, but inside I was thinking, Here we go again.

See, this wasn’t Sarah’s first rodeo. She’d already tried starting businesses twice before, and both times it ended in complete disaster. Both times, Mom and Dad had to bail her out and pay off her debts.

But I kept my mouth shut because I knew if I said anything, I’d be the bad guy. My parents always, always took Sarah’s side.

Sarah was practically bouncing in her seat. “I’ve got everything figured out this time, Celeste. I have a complete business plan and I only need money for development.”

Then she and David both turned to look at me. Like, really staring at me with these expectant faces.

“Why are you guys looking at me like that?” I asked.

Sarah’s voice got all sweet and manipulative. “Well, I know you’re saving up for a house, and I know you’ve got about $120,000 in your account.”

My blood went cold. “I’m not investing my house money in your business, Sarah.”

She immediately got defensive and started going on and on about how she’d thought everything through this time. How if I gave her the money, in a couple years she’d double my investment and give me back $240,000.

I actually laughed. I couldn’t help it.

“Sarah, you’ve already failed at business twice. Maybe it’s time to stop with these schemes and get a regular job like the rest of us.”

That’s when everything went to hell.

Sarah’s face went red. She started crying and ran out of the house. David called me an idiot and followed her out.

So there I was alone with Mom and Dad, thinking maybe now they’d see reason.

But no. They immediately started in on me, calling me cruel, saying I was selfish and greedy.

“I was just telling the truth,” I said. “If she starts another business, she’s just going to rack up more debt.”

But Mom wasn’t having it. “Sarah is more talented than you, Celeste. You’re just jealous of her success.”

Then Dad dropped the ultimatum.

“You give Sarah that $120,000, or we’re cutting you out of this family completely.”

I looked at both of them — these people who were supposed to love me unconditionally — and I said, “I’m not giving her my money.”

They kicked me out. Their own daughter. They actually told me to leave and never come back.

The next day, I changed my phone number. I made sure none of them could contact me.

A year later, I bought my house just like I planned.

For five years, I’ve lived without them.

I heard through mutual friends that Sarah actually did start her business, and it was going well. She bought a nice house, was traveling with David all the time. I was genuinely happy for her, but I still didn’t want anything to do with any of them.

So, you can imagine how I felt seeing Mom’s name in my inbox after all this time.

My hands were actually shaking as I opened the email.

“Celeste, we need to see you urgently. This is a matter of life and death. Please come home.”

My first thought was that one of them was dying.

As angry as I still was, I’m not heartless. If someone was dying, I needed to know.

I realized they probably used my old email because they couldn’t reach me any other way.

I sat there for a long time staring at that email.

Part of me wanted to delete it and pretend I never saw it.

But what if Dad was having a heart attack? What if Mom had cancer? I’d never forgive myself if something happened and I didn’t at least find out what was going on.

So I wrote back, short and to the point: “I’ll come by this Saturday.”

Saturday morning came way too fast. I barely slept the night before, running through every possible scenario in my head. I drove to my parents’ house with my stomach in knots.

It’s weird being back in that neighborhood after five years. Everything looked smaller than I remembered.

When I pulled up to the driveway, I noticed two cars already parked there — Sarah’s Porsche and David’s Mercedes. Both looked brand new and expensive as hell.

Great. So this wasn’t just going to be me and my parents. Sarah and David were here, too.

I sat in my car for a minute, trying to gather my courage. Whatever this was about, it obviously involved the whole family.

I walked up to the front door and knocked. Mom opened it, and for a second, we just stared at each other. She looked older, more tired. There were new lines around her eyes.

“Celeste,” she said, and her voice was shaky. “Thank you for coming.”

I followed her into the living room, and there they all were.

Dad was sitting in his usual chair looking grim. Sarah was on the couch next to David, and she looked like she’d been crying. Her eyes were all red and puffy.

The weird thing was, they all looked happy to see me — despite everything — but also worried sick about something.

“Okay,” I said, staying standing because I didn’t want to get too comfortable. “What’s going on? Your email said this was life and death.”

Mom sat down and immediately started tearing up.

“It’s about Sarah. She’s in serious trouble.”

I looked over at my sister. She couldn’t even meet my eyes.

David was holding her hand and he looked scared.

“What kind of trouble?” I asked.

Dad cleared his throat. “Her business went under three months ago. She owes a lot of money to the bank and they took her house.”

I felt a weird mix of sadness and vindication.

I was sad for Sarah because losing your home sucks, but part of me was thinking, I told you so.

But I kept that to myself.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said. “But what does this have to do with me?”

Mom wiped her eyes. “That’s not all. Even after losing the house, she still owes money. A lot of money to some very dangerous people.”

Sarah finally spoke up, her voice barely a whisper.

“$150,000.”

“Who do you owe $150,000 to?”

David answered for her. “Private investors. They’re not the kind of people who accept ‘I’ll pay you later’ as an answer.”

“They’ve been calling,” Sarah said, crying again. “Making threats. They know where we live now. They know our routines. We’re scared, Celeste.”

I felt bad for them. I really did. But I still didn’t understand why I was there.

“That’s terrible. But I still don’t see what you want from me.”

That’s when Mom dropped the bomb.

“We know you bought a house. A nice one. We think you should sell it and help Sarah pay off these debts.”

I stared at her like she’d grown a second head.

“Are you out of your goddamn mind?”

“You’re young,” Mom said. “You can earn another house. Sarah and David could be seriously hurt if they don’t pay this money back.”

I looked around the room at all of them.

“So let me get this straight. You kicked me out of the family five years ago because I wouldn’t give Sarah money for her business. Now that business has failed spectacularly, she’s in debt to some scary people, and you want me to sell my house to bail her out?”

“Family helps family,” Dad said.

I laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound.

“You told me I wasn’t family anymore, remember? You cut me off completely.”

Sarah started sobbing harder. “I know we messed up before, but this is different. These people aren’t going to just take us to court. They’re going to hurt us.”

“Then maybe you should have thought about that before you borrowed money from loan sharks,” I said.

David got mad. “You have no idea what kind of pressure we’re under.”

“You’re right, I don’t. But I saw two very expensive cars in the driveway. Maybe start by selling those and paying off some of the debt.”

“We need those cars for work,” Sarah snapped.

“You need them more than you need to be safe from dangerous creditors?”

Mom stood up and got right in my face. “This house you bought — if you sold it, you could pay off Sarah’s debts and still have money left over for a nice apartment.”

“A nice apartment? I was getting really pissed off now. Mom, I worked my ass off for that house. I saved every penny for years. I’m not selling it to fix Sarah’s mess.”

“She’s your sister,” Dad said.

“She’s also a grown woman who made her own choices. Bad choices, apparently.”

Sarah jumped up from the couch. “You’re supposed to help me! You’re supposed to care about what happens to me!”

“Where was this family loyalty five years ago when you all told me to get lost?”

“That was different,” Mom said.

“How was it different? You didn’t want to help me keep my money then, and I don’t want to help you with your money problems now.”

The room went quiet for a minute.

Everyone was staring at me like I was the villain here.

“I’m not doing this,” I said. “Sarah got herself into this mess, and she can get herself out. If you want to help her so badly, sell your house and give her the money.”

Mom gasped like I’d slapped her. “This is the only house we have! We’re old, Celeste! We can’t just start over like you can!”

“Then I guess you understand how I feel about my house.”

I started walking toward the door.

Sarah called after me. “You’re making a huge mistake! These people don’t mess around!”

I turned back to look at her. “Neither do I.”