The room around me was dark except for the blue glow of the screen and the thin stripe of streetlight leaking through my blinds. I was still wearing my scrub top\u2014wrinkled, faintly smelling of antiseptic and someone else\u2019s fear\u2014because I\u2019d stumbled home from the hospital and collapsed on the bed without even making it. Twelve hours in the ICU had left my body buzzing in that strange way exhaustion does, where you\u2019re so tired you can\u2019t actually sleep.<\/p>\n
A notification hovered on my lock screen<\/p>\n
Family Reality Check \u2014 new messages<\/p>\n
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\nMy thumb paused mid-air.I didn\u2019t recognize the group chat name. I didn\u2019t recognize the icon either\u2014some generic gray silhouette. For a second, I wondered if it was a work thread I\u2019d forgotten about, or one of those spam groups that add random numbers at night.<\/p>\n
Then I saw the list of participants. My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
David. Sarah. Chloe. Aunt Renee. Cousin Olivia. Mom.<\/p>\n
My family.<\/p>\n
Someone had accidentally added me to a chat they\u2019d meant to keep me out of. Or they\u2019d meant to remove me and clicked the wrong name. The kind of mistake that happens when you\u2019re laughing too hard to double-check.My hand hovered over the screen, and I told myself to be rational. Maybe it was an old group thread. Maybe it was a plan for a surprise gift. Maybe it was nothing.<\/p>\n
I unlocked the phone.<\/p>\n
The first message I saw made my blood run cold.<\/p>\n
Sarah: Thank God she\u2019s covering the turkey again this year. I\u2019m not about to spend $150 on that.
\nDavid: She wants to be included. She\u2019ll pay for anything. It\u2019s kind of sad.
\nOlivia: Holiday parasite strikes again<\/p>\n
I stared at the words until they lost their meaning. Parasite. The word scraped across my brain like a sharp instrument.<\/p>\n
Then I scrolled.<\/p>\n
And the room tilted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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