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For years, we lived under the comfortable delusion that a digital bank receipt was a valid substitute for a son’s devotion. We believed that wealth was a shield, and that as long as the wire transfers were consistent, the woman who gave us life was protected from the jagged edges of reality. We thought we were providing her with a sunset of peace; in reality, we were funding her nightmare.
My name is Ryan. I am an engineer, a man trained to value precision, structural integrity, and measurable outcomes. For five years, I lived in Dubai, a city built on the audacity of steel and the certainty of numbers. I measured my success in bonuses, my worth in salary brackets, and my love for my mother, Florence, in the two thousand dollars I sent across the ocean every month. My siblings followed the same blueprint. Melissa, ever the pillar of responsibility, sent a significant portion of her earnings, and Miles, despite his modest income, never missed a payment.
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