She kicked me out of her house to please her daughter. But when she later came begging for rent money, my response wiped the smirk off her face—and exposed exactly who she really was.

It made me free.

And sometimes, the loudest revenge is simply refusing to be used again.

I blocked them both. But the real shock came three months later.

One afternoon, Mark got a call from an unfamiliar number. His face shifted from confusion… to disbelief… to disgust.

“Mom got evicted,” he whispered after hanging up. “Heather drained her savings. Took everything. Left her with nothing.”

It was ironic. Tragic. Yet somehow predictable. They tried to use me for stability—and the very person they championed—Heather—ended up financially destroying them.

Mark and I talked for hours. Should we help? Contact them? Step back completely? In the end, we agreed on something simple: compassion, without falling back into the toxic cycle. We arranged for a social worker to help Linda find temporary housing and job assistance. But we kept our distance.

Continue reading…