Ten Years Of Partiality: I Cut Ties

Synopsis

My name was Autumn. On my eighteenth birthday, my father, in front of the whole family, solemnly fastened an emerald pendant carved with the name "Sophie" around Sophie's neck. "Sophie," he said, "you're my proudest daughter." His eyes were full of affection, and his voice was so gentle that it could make anyone melt. Meanwhile, I sat off to the side, holding nothing but a cold college acceptance letter. It looked like he had forgotten he had a real daughter. I stared at the glaring "Sophie" on that pendant, then at the smug smile on Sophie's face. It felt like an ice pick had stabbed straight into my heart. A bone-deep chill shot from my feet all the way to my head. My father had never seen me as his pride. Instead, it had always been that outsider, the one he'd supported for ten years, who'd stolen a decade of his love from me. I gripped the acceptance letter in my hand. It was the only leverage I'd managed to wrestle from the cracks of my parents' favoritism. And it was where I began to fight back.