Sinking Revenge

When I was 15, my parents took me to a lake, tossed me a half-deflated tube,

and said, “Swim or sink, you ungrateful brat.” Then they drove off laughing.

I nearly drowned three times before a fisherman dragged me out, blue-lipped.

I told him I was an orphan. In every way that mattered, I was.

I’m 36 now. Built my own life from nothing. Zero family. Zero safety net.

Zero contact. This morning my phone started vibrating nonstop. 20 missed calls.

Then a text from a new number: “Lawson… it’s your mother. Please pick up.”

Twenty-one years of silence and now they want to talk? I checked their profiles—aged,