“No.”

Mom sighed dramatically.

“Nadia, we already discussed this.”

“You discussed it. I never agreed.”

Then I held up my phone.

“The sheriff’s office has my ownership documents. An officer is on the way. You have ten minutes to put everything back in that truck.”

Braxton laughed.

Until I opened the county property record showing one owner.

Me.

No parents.

No brother.

No “family home.”

Just Nadia Prescott.

Dad arrived five minutes later furious that I was “calling authorities on family.”

I looked toward his enormous house three miles away.

“If Braxton needs somewhere to live, you have six empty rooms.”

That ended that argument quickly.

When the deputy arrived, he reviewed my identification and deed, then calmly explained that nobody had permission to occupy my property without my consent.

The furniture went back into the truck.

Every box followed.

Mom stood on the sidewalk saying I would regret choosing a house over family.

I changed the locks that evening anyway.

Then I removed the emergency key they had somehow copied years earlier and installed cameras at both entrances.

Braxton and Delia moved into my parents’ guest suite.

Apparently newborns became much less disruptive once the alternative involved paying rent.

For fourteen years, my family called the bungalow “ours” whenever they wanted something from it.

That afternoon, the deed taught them a simpler word.

Mine.