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I came home with the box empty.
My mother was waiting.
"You've thrown everything out? What exactly is your plan — you're disabled, you've got no job. Who's going to look after you?"
She suggested, not for the first time, that I use my contacts to help Lily get a position at a Bristol media outlet. A good one, with proper maternity provisions.
"The baby will be here before you know it. Lily's family can't offer them anything. But with your network —"
I laughed despite myself.
"How well is Lily managing you at this point?"
I started going through it: how Lily had spent years letting my mother foot the bill for everything while quietly using that money to send things home to her family. How she'd quit two jobs the moment my mother's connections got her something better, always with an excuse. How she now wanted a well-paid media job with full maternity benefits handed to her through someone else's hard work.
"You want me to sacrifice everything I've built so Lily can walk into it and get paid for doing nothing."
My mother stared at me.
"Lily saved my life. I'll give her whatever I choose to give her. And you have no say in it."
It wasn't the first time she'd said this. She'd nearly drowned years ago reaching a student during a school trip, and Lily had pulled her out. My mother had been using it as currency ever since. She'd also, more than once, threatened me with the house — the one significant thing she owned. Every time I pushed back on her, the house came out as a warning.
Four years of university, I'd funded myself through grants and part-time work, because my mother's money was always going elsewhere. I'd never seen the inside of the house fund. But she kept offering it to Lily whenever the conversation suited her.
I looked at her without expression.
"Fine," I said. "But Lily has two brothers. Once you've given everything away, don't expect me to step in."
"As if I'd want anything from you. You're useless."
"Mum. She's been working you for years. When the money runs out, she'll be gone. Her family will be gone. And then it'll just be you."
"Out," she said. "Before I throw you out myself."