100 Days a

A few days ago, I received an unexpected phone call from my family's longtime lawyer, Mr. Shears. It came as a bit of a shock, as he had never once gotten into direct contact with me before. I was a little hesitant to answer but when I did, he quickly explained that my father had accumulated a substantial amount of debt to a small local business. He said it was urgent and important for our family to gather together to consider our options.

The news of my father being in trouble didn't really come as much of a surprise to me. Ever since Mom passed away about six years ago, he took a change for the worse. Her passing was extremely difficult on all of us, but Dad seemed to become a completely different person. Alcoholism quickly began to rule over his life and he would often be gone from the house for several weeks at time, leaving me alone and responsible for my three years younger sister, Chloe. It was difficult but the two of us managed to get by.

Along with managing the responsibilities of the house, I was still able to graduate high school and made sure that Chloe was kept out of trouble. I moved out of the house shortly after graduation in order to live at the dorms with one of my friends when I was accepted into the local college. Chloe by then was old enough that I felt she would be okay without me and from what I heard from her, Dad had begun to spend much more time at home. I didn't see much of either of them except for the summer time as my courses and part time job kept me rather busy.

Mostly out of curiosity, I agreed to come to this meeting that Mr. Shears had organized. I wasn't really too interested in what my father or his lawyer had to say to me. The man pretty much abandoned his two teenage daughters in a time where they needed him most and for that reason, I find it difficult for me garner any sympathy for him.

For the past year or so Chloe often tried to set up some sort of gathering for the three of us, whether it was lunch at the nearby diner or stuff we use to do as kids like visiting the zoo. Every time I have turned her down, citing studying or work as an excuse but Chloe is no fool. She knows how much I despise our father but that doesn't seem to stop her from trying. I don't fully understand what happened after I moved out but with the way Chloe often spoke of him, it was almost as if she completely forgot what he did to us.