When my stepmom sold the one thing my late mom left me—a cherished antique piano—I thought my heart couldn’t break any more. But she had no idea her spiteful move would cost her far more than a piece of furniture.
My mom died when I was 14. Cancer.
But every Sunday morning, even when she was too tired to do much else, she would play her piano.
It was this old, beautiful upright Steinway. Dark mahogany. Ivory keys.
Carved legs like something out of a movie. She’d sit on the bench and just… play.
Jazz. Old standards. Little bits of classical.
It didn’t matter. I’d sit on the rug with my cereal and just listen.
It felt like home. Like her voice.
After she died, everything felt cold.
The house. The silence. The world.
That’s all I want.”
Dad nodded. “It’s yours, honey. I promise.”
He put it in the will later.
I saw it. That piano was legally mine.
And for a while, it stayed right there in the living room, like a promise he hadn’t broken yet.
Then came Tracy.
He met her when I was 16. I was still a mess — sad, angry, tired of pretending I was fine.
She had a daughter too — Madison.
Same age as me, but everything I wasn’t. She wore expensive boots and always had her hair done. First thing she ever said to me?
“You kinda look like a homeless Taylor Swift.”
Yeah. That was day one.
When Dad married Tracy, I knew things were going to change. I didn’t know how fast.
At first, it was little things.
She’d move stuff around. Clean out drawers. Then the photos started disappearing.
All the ones with Mom? Replaced by new ones — Tracy and Dad in Cabo, in Aspen, in matching Christmas sweaters.
One day, I went looking for Mom’s cookbooks. Gone.
Then her scarves. Gone. Just gone.
But the piano stayed. I think Tracy didn’t touch it because even she knew some lines you shouldn’t cross.
Or maybe she was just waiting.
I left for college. It was out of state.
I needed the distance. Home didn’t feel like home anymore.
The story doesn’t end here — it continues on the next page.
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