What is with those people who always put their sons before their daughters? Does it really matter if your child is a boy or a girl as long as they are happy and healthy? Well, it did to my parents, and they weren’t even ashamed to admit it. What’s worse, I’m sure I’m not the only woman out there who experienced this kind of blatant favorism.
When my mom made it known for the first time that I didn’t count as much as my brother, she was actually smiling, and anyone looking at her as she spoke would assume she was talking about the weather. When she did it the second time, she handed all three property deeds over to Daniel. “Daughters marry out,” she said. “He’s the one who keeps the family name alive.”
Just like that, she gave him grandfather’s red-brick duplex, the lake house I helped my dad renovate, and the downtown townhouse I had managed and refinanced for two years while my brother was blowing cash on one failing business idea after another. My dad also thought leaving me with nothing wasn’t a big deal, while Daniel, as always, mocked me and said I’ll marry some rich guy anyways.
What surprised me the most, really, was that they ignored the fact I lent my father $180,000 through a private, notarized loan that my lawyer had legally secured against all three of those properties when his business was on the verge of complete failure.
And now that I signed the transfer papers without fighting, they all tapped me on the shoulder saying how great of a daughter and sister I was.
That night, I packed up eight boxes, sold my car, and took a job in Toronto. And while my lawyer made sure my name was locked onto the property titles, Daniel completely lost his mind. Within six months, his social media was full of photos from the lake house, think champagne, speedboats, and posts calling himself the king of the family. He turned the inheritance into his own personal ATM, refinancing the townhouse for a car dealership and taking out loans against the duplex for endless, pointless renovations. By fall, the missed payments started piling up. Under our contract, those missed payments automatically meant the whole loan was due right then and there.
When I sent him the default notice, I let him call me an endless number of times before I decided to pick up one of his calls. He was screaming at the top of his lungs, swearing I had given those houses to him. “I signed the deeds over to you,” I told him. “I never forgave the debt.”
Of course he hung up on me. And you know what? He could be smart about it if he wanted to, but instead, he opted to be ignorant, and that only made things worse for him. He hid the notices, faked new loan papers, and ignored every single chance I gave him to sell off one property and clear what he owed. By Thanksgiving morning, the final legal warnings were locked in and Daniel still hadn’t said a word to our parents.
Later that day, my mom called me and asked me how I was doing before getting to the point of that call. “Honey, your brother is having a rough month. Wire him thirty thousand dollars today. He needs help closing something down.”
I just couldn’t put up with their audacity any longer. “Ask him why he hasn’t sold those three houses yet.”
Dead silence on the other end. In the background, I could hear my father asking what I’d just said, and Daniel shouting at her to hang up. She didn’t.
So I just told them. I laid out the whole thing, the loan, the legal papers, the missed payments, and the fact that the townhouse was already gone.
Dad grabbed the phone right out of her hand and started screaming that I had cornered my brother and ruined the family.
“No,” I told him. “I’m just done paying for everything.”
Eventually, Daniel sold the downtown property and paid my loan in full, including interest and legal fees. His car business tanked, and my dad had to come out of retirement to bail him out for the millionth time.
Some eight months later, my mother called me and said they missed me. I replied, “Well, I hope you are all doing well.”
They wanted their son and worshiped him their entire life, so I didn’t really care to watch them lose what they owned again and again.
Please SHARE this article with your family and friends on Facebook.
Bored Daddy
