Emily, where are you? I need to leave immediately, come right now!
The message from Emily flashes on Olivias phone at half past nine in the morning. Olivia puts down her halffinished mug of tea and rubs her nose. Its the third time this week. The third immediately. The third right now.
I cant, Im working, she types back and returns to her laptop.
A minute later the phone buzzes again.
What work? Youre remote! Just shut the laptop and come over. James and Sophie are alone, I have to get out.
Olivia smirks. Emily and James have both been stuck at home for a year and a half. He pretends to be looking for a decent job, she pretends to be looking after the kids. In reality James spends whole days scrolling forums and Emily spends endless hours texting friends and bingewatching series. Without the inheritance James received, the family would be scraping by.
I have a deadline in three hours. Call Mum, Olivia replies. The reply comes instantly, as if Emily is hovering over the keyboard.
Mums busy! Olivia, seriously, whats it to you? You live next door!
I cant, Olivia repeats. Im really busy.
The phone rings. Emily decides to get aggressive.
Olivia, what nonsense is this? Emily doesnt even say hello. Im asking you like a human for help!
And Im telling you like a human: I have work.
What work? You sit at a computer all day, great hero!
Olivia closes her eyes. Its the same argument every time.
Emily, the client is waiting for the project. If I dont deliver I wont get paid. If I dont get paid I cant cover the rent. Clear?
Lord, its just a little delay! Were family, Olivia. Family! Do you even know what that means?
I get it. But I cant right now.
So you dont want to, Emilys voice turns icy. Just like that you dont want to help your own sister, your own nieces and nephews! How selfish can you be, Olivia?
Emily, I
No, listen! Whenever I need help you have an excuse, some flimsy reason! Were family, Olivia, and you wont help me!
Olivia nearly laughs. In the past month shes spent at least ten days at Emilys house: feeding the children, putting them to bed, reading stories, picking up scattered toys. And every time Emily disappears for a couple of hours, those hours stretch into a full day.
Emily, I really have to work.
Excuses! Nothing but excuses! You make up nonexistent tasks just to avoid family!
Olivia hits the mute button. Her fingers tremble slightly with irritation. She inhales deeply, takes a sip of cooled tea, and returns to the project.
An hour later the phone lights up again. Three missed calls from Emily, two texts, one fourminute voice note. Olivia doesnt listen. She knows what it contains: accusations, guilttripping, pleas for sympathy.
By evening she has twelve messages, all variations on were family, why wont you help. Olivia reads them, feeling the absurdity rise. Emily and James sit at home, two grown adults, yet they demand that their working sister drop everything and become their babysitter.
The next day the pattern repeats. And the day after. And again the following day. Emily calls three or four times, sends long messages calling Olivia selfish, heartless, forgetful of what family means. James stays out of the conflict, simply existing in the background.
Olivia stops answering calls. She just hangs up and goes back to her tasks. She knows that if she caves once, it will never end.
She has her own life, her own plans, her own dreams, after all. She isnt going to sacrifice them to someone elses whims.
On Saturday her mother calls.
Olivia, whats happening? Margaret Smith says, stern and condemning.
Nothing, Mum. Im working.
Emily says youre refusing to help with the kids.
Emily says a lot of things. Im not refusing to help. Im refusing to drop my work every time she decides to go somewhere.
Olivia, shes your sister. The older sister. The younger should help the older, thats always been the way.
Mum, Emily is thirty. She has a husband. They both sit at home all day. Why should I look after their children?
Because youre family! Margarets voice sharpens. What kind of selfishness is that? In our day nobody acted like that! Everyone helped each other, nobody said no!
Olivia leans back in her chair. In twentyeight years she never learned to argue with her mother. Margaret always sides with Emily. Since childhood the elder daughter has been the good one, the younger the appendix.
Mum, Im not going to discuss this.
There! Thats it! You wont even talk to me! Youve grown up, found a job and think you can ignore family?
Im just living my life.
Your life is family! Remember that, Olivia!
She remembers, but she draws her own conclusions.
The next two weeks become a relentless nightmare. Emily calls, texts, sends photos of the children with captions like look how Sophie misses you. Margaret chimes in every other day, repeating the same arguments about family duty and respect for elders.
It cant go on forever. Olivia knows she must either break and return to the unpaid nanny role, or make a radical change.
An offer for a job in another city arrives like a lifeline: a good salary, an exciting project, clear prospects for advancement, and best of all, eight hundred miles between her and the family.
Olivia accepts that same day.
She packs quickly and quietly. She finds a new tenant for her flat, boxes up her things, buys a train ticket. She tells no one. She knows that if she says anything a huge argument will start, Emily will sob, Margaret will shout, and eventually theyll beg her to stay, pulling everything back to the way it was.
No more. Enough!
She leaves on Wednesday morning on an early train. She texts her mother and sister that shes moving, then switches her phone off at the station. She turns it on only a day later, after shes settled into a new flat.
Fortythree missed calls, eighteen texts, five voice notes. First she listens to her mothers voicemail.
Olivia! What have you done?! How could you leave without telling anyone?! This is this is betrayal! Come back home at once!
The second is Emilys. Her sister is sobbing into the phone, mixing gasps with accusations. How could you abandon us the kids keep asking where Aunt Olivia is you hate us
Olivia listens to the end, then calmly deletes all the messages and calls her mother back.
Mum, Im fine. I got a new job, Ive moved.
Come back! Right now! The family needs you!
No, Mum. Im staying here.
Olivia, you dont understand! Emily needs help! The children
Emily needs to start looking after her own children, or hire a nanny, or get James to put the computer down. Im not obliged to be on call all the time, Mum.
She hangs up without hearing the final outburst.
Emily calls again an hour later.
Olivia, how could you? Were sisters! You should be here!
I owe you nothing, Emily. Youre an adult. Sort your own life out.
But the kids
Theyre yours. Yours and Jamess. Raise them yourselves.
You know how hard it is for me!
I know. Thats why I left.
In the weeks that follow Olivia settles into the new routine. A new city, a new office, new colleagues. She goes to work, tackles interesting projects, and in the evenings she returns to a quiet flat. No frantic calls, no demands.
The calls from family slowly fade away.
Two months later she meets Max at a worknight gathering. They chat, exchange numbers, and click. Hes funny, smart, and completely normalno drama, no manipulation, no you owe me strings attached.
One day Olivia catches herself smiling for no reason. She wakes up feeling genuinely happy about the day ahead, instead of dreading a flood of sisters messages.
Six months on, shes on her balcony with a mug of tea, watching a city that now feels like home. A rescued cat, adopted from the block a month ago, snoozes beside her. In the next room Max clatters dishes while making breakfast.
The eight hundred miles between her and the family turned out to be the best cure for the entitlement and guilttripping. She made the right choice by leaving.
And for the first time in a long while, Olivia is truly happy.
