193-‎At 2:03 a.m., my mother warned me, “Don’t embarrass us,” before a dinner where I was already rewritten into someone smaller, quieter, safer—but the moment I tried to speak, she cut in, smiling, until the judge across the table froze, stared straight at me, and said, “You were the one who stopped that case from being buried, weren’t you?” and in that instant, the version of me she created started collapsing in front of everyone

‎At 2:03 a.m., my mother warned me, “Don’t embarrass us,” before a dinner where I was already rewritten into someone smaller, quieter, safer—but the moment I tried to speak, she cut in, smiling, until the judge across the table froze, stared straight at me, and said, “You were the one who stopped that case from being buried, weren’t you?” and in that instant, the version of me she created started collapsing in front of everyone