A Fake Poverty that My Parent Build for Me

On the twentieth New Year's Eve of my life, my parents were too busy working to spend the holiday with me. Or so I thought. I went out alone to watch the fireworks, trying to convince myself that I didn’t mind the solitude. But then, in the glowing neon of the city, I saw them. Mom and Dad. Not alone. They were with another girl. Taking her out for seafood. Buying her a million-dollar necklace. Gifting her a Lamborghini sports car.

I stood frozen as I watched them dote on her, their eyes filled with warmth, with pride, with love—the kind of love I had never known.