When Ivy’s $25,000 lifeline turns into a three-year silence, she cuts ties with the sister who played her for a fool. But karma has a sharp memory, and when it strikes… Ivy’s the one holding the high ground. Forgiveness might be on the table… but so is everything they lost.
I never thought I’d have to learn that loyalty and kindness could be weaknesses. Especially not when it came to my own sister. It all started three years ago.
I’d just sold my small flower shop, a cozy little place I’d built from scratch after college, and was finally breathing easy for the first time in years. No debt, no stress, just the satisfying hum of a savings account and a chance to figure out what was next. That was when Lisa called.
She and her husband Rick were in trouble. I didn’t ask for the full breakdown, just enough to understand they were behind on mortgage payments, close to defaulting on some high-interest loans, and terrified they were going to lose their house. It was the kind of panic you can hear between words, even when someone is trying to hold it together.
“We just need something to buy us time,” Lisa said, her voice breaking through the phone. “A year, tops, and we’ll pay it back in full. I promise!”
Rick, my brother-in-law, got on the call next.
“We’ll sign something if you want, Ivy. I mean, we’re family. But I get it… Just know, you’d be saving us.
Like seriously saving us.”
And I believed them. Of course, I believed them. Not because I was naïve but because I wanted to believe that if the roles were reversed, they’d do the same for me.
That was the first mistake. The next morning, I wired $25,000 into their account. It was nearly everything I had left from selling my shop.
I even had them sign a written agreement. It wasn’t notarized or legally polished, it was just a basic typed-up page that we all signed over coffee at their kitchen table. I thought that would be enough.
I thought trust would fill in the gaps. The first six months passed quietly. I didn’t bring it up.
I didn’t want to be the kind of person who lords money over people, especially not over my sister. I told myself they’d reach out when they were ready. But then a year went by.
And then another. When I started asking, gently at first, about repayment, I got vague responses. “It’s been a tough quarter,” Rick would say.
The story doesn’t end here –
it continues on the next page.
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