Disowned

Summary

My parents beamed at me. "How would you like a baby brother?" they asked.

I clutched my ragged stuffed rabbit and shook my head with all the solemnity a four-year-old could muster. "No."

They laughed, ruffling my hair as if my words were meaningless. A year later, they returned with a plump baby boy—my "playmate," my "protector," my so-called safety net.

But adulthood never came. When Julian developed leukemia, I was strapped to cold steel tables as needles plunged into my bones.