Part 2: At my wedding, my younger sister interrupted our first dance with a pink-smoke gender reveal. Then she announced Mom had given her our 12-day honeymoon in Greece—and expected me to smile while the guests cheered.

Tyler took two steps backward, physically distancing himself from Khloe. The look in his eyes wasn't just anger; it was pure, unadulterated revulsion.

"Tyler, where are you going?" Khloe cried, turning toward him with tear-stained cheeks. The mascara was running down her face, mixing with the pink powder on her cheeks to create grotesque streaks. "You're supposed to stand by me! I'm carrying your child!"

"I'm leaving," Tyler said flatly.

"Tyler, no! You can't leave me here!"

"Watch me," he whispered, shaking his head. "My parents were right about you. Every single time something goes wrong, you blame someone else. You told me Maya gave her blessing for Greece. You looked me in the eye in the car ride here and said Maya insisted we take the trip because she loved being an aunt!"

The truth hung in the air like a second cloud of smog.

"Tyler, I only said that so you wouldn't worry!" Khloe wailed.

"No," Tyler replied, his voice cracking with disgust. "You said that because you're a liar. And worse, you're a thief."

Tyler turned on his heel and walked straight toward the exit. His parents followed immediately behind him, not even bothering to say goodbye to my mother. As Richard Vance passed the head table, he paused just long enough to drop their wedding gift envelope onto the table.

"Consider this a donation toward your legal fees," Richard said coldly to Mom before walking out into the night.

Mom looked like she was about to faint. The golden future she had imagined—marrying her favorite daughter into the wealthy Vance family—was crumbling into ashes right before her eyes, and she had nobody to blame but herself.

Yet, true to form, she turned her wrath back on me.

"Look at what you did!" Mom screamed, lunging past Daniel to point a shaking finger at my face. "You ruined her relationship! You ruined her baby’s future! Are you happy now, Maya?! Does your cold, black heart finally feel satisfied?!"

"Mom," I said, my voice dropping to a whisper that somehow carried further than her screams. "I didn't ruin Khloe's relationship. Her own entitlement did."

"I gave you life!" Mom raged, completely losing her composure. "I gave up my dreams so you could go to college! And you repay me by counting every penny? By embarrassing us in front of everyone we know? You owe us!"

"I don't owe you anything," I said clearly. "I paid off your car note two years ago. I paid off Khloe’s student loans when she dropped out of beauty school. I paid forty-one thousand dollars for this wedding while you demanded upgrades you couldn't afford. I have given you everything I had to give."