I arrived early at Rebecca’s house with the chocolate-and-strawberry cake she’d loved since childhood, the $200 price tag feeling trivial in comparison to her smile. The little flag by the mailbox fluttered in the breeze, and I knocked, imagining the warmth of her laughter as she opened the door. Instead, she stood there, arms crossed, expression sharp.

“Oh, it’s you,” she muttered, barely meeting my eyes. I extended the cake with trembling hands. “Happy birthday, my love. I thought we could celebrate… like old times.” She sighed, stepping aside without a word of thanks, letting me in. The living room, furnished with the house I had painstakingly saved for her, felt colder than the air outside.

“Mom,” she said, her voice precise, deliberate, “I’ve been thinking about what I want most for my birthday.” My heart lifted, imagining jewelry, a trip, anything that might make her happy. “Anything,” I whispered. She looked at me with eyes I no longer recognized—hard, empty, contemptuous.

“What I would like,” she said slowly, savoring the weight of each word, “is for you to just die.” Time stopped. The cake trembled in my hands as if it understood the finality in her voice. I swallowed, the room spinning around me. For a moment, all the years of love, sacrifice, and hope collapsed into a single, unbearable truth: she no longer wanted me in her life.