The Daughter They Charged for Love

My parents won the lottery, and just like that, I no longer had to worry about college tuition.

"A hundred and twenty grand. Fifty pays off the mortgage, twenty buys Toby Sullivan a car, twenty covers Renata Sullivan's four years of college, and the last thirty is for our retirement."

I counted it out, again and again. There was no share for me.

Under my startled stare, my parents fished out a thick stack of yellowed IOUs.

"When you were one, hospital stay. Fifty-two hundred."

"At seven, martial arts gym registration. Eight hundred."

"At eight, surgery. Thirteen hundred."