$500 KPI: Surviving College Under Mom’s Rules Chapter 07
Tot my new phone right away, and Mr. Donnelly also relayed the message to Mom, as I wished.
With his help, I used an advance on my dividends to rent a small, fully–furnished apartment in the city center.
Predictably, Mom went ballistic.
My old phone was powered off, while I only received calls from Mr. Donnelly and a few trusted friends on my new phone.
Even so, I was still bombarded with calls and texts from relatives left and right.
The first call came from Mom.
“Sabrina, what is the meaning of this? I can’t believe you hired a lawyer. You think you’re so tough now, do you?” she shrieked hysterically.
The second call came from Aunt Beatrice, laying on the moral guilt trip.
“Sabrina, your mother is about to make herself sick from anger! How could you take your own mother to court? Have some outsider led you astray? No matter what, she’s still your mother. She fed you and clothed you for 18 years–you can’t be this ungrateful!”
Mr. Donnelly recorded all of these calls and calmly informed them that all matters should be communicated through official legal correspondence. Otherwise, he’d file a police report for harassment.
I sat in my small apartment, drinking hot cocoa and listening to the recordings. They didn’t stir a single ripple of
emotion in me.
Previously, words like that would’ve hurt me deeply. But now, they were just noise. This was because Dad’s letter made me understand that I wasn’t being ungrateful. Instead, I was simply fighting for my dignity and rights as a human being.
Mr. Donnelly soon brought me news. He’d officially sent Mom a legal notice, demanding that she provide a detailed itemized list of expenses for the two million dollars in child–rearing costs and return the scholarship money and part–time earnings she’d seized.
Mom’s initial response was to delay and evade. She even had Aunt Beatrice call Mr. Donnelly to mock us, saying we were so desperate for money that we’d turned to extortion.
However, when Mr. Donnelly revealed the contents of Dad’s will and my equity in Flourishing Age, her attitude changed completely.
One afternoon, while I was reading in the library, Mr. Donnelly sent me a WhatsApp message.
“Ms. Knapp, Ms. Herbert just called. She says she’d like to meet with you privately to discuss family matters.”
I let out a cold laugh. “Tell her I’ll only talk to her lawyer.”
The next day, Mr. Donnelly sent me another recording of Mom pleading on the phone.
“Mr. Donnelly, does Sabrina have some kind of misunderstanding about me? Why would I ever ask her for two million dollars? That was just something I said in anger. She’s my daughter–blood is thicker than water. You can’t put a price on that.
“The company shares her father left behind belong to our family. She’s just a young girl–what does she know about running a business? Is someone manipulating her?
“Mr. Donnelly, could you please help persuade her to come home so we can have a proper talk? There’s no need to er things get ugly.”
She was actually trying to play the family card now.
I gripped my phone tightly. Instead of family bonds, all I felt was a deep coldness inside.
“Mr. Donnelly, please reply to her that I have no misunderstandings whatsoever. If she wants to play the family card, then she should first return all the money she’s appropriated from me.
“Furthermore, she must stop interfering with my personal freedom and my education. If she can’t do that, then we’ll handle it all through legal means.”
