Page 1 of Burden to Bear

ONE

Mia

Pride.

I’d always viewed that word as something negative. Like when someone was too proud to admit they’d done wrong. Practicing some humility always seemed like the better route to take.

Now, I knew differently. I understood just how wrong I’d been.

Of course, remaining humble was a good thing. I wholeheartedly believed that to be the truth.

But pride wasn’t necessarily the awful thing I’d initially believed it was.

Because in this moment, an overwhelming sense of accomplishment had moved through me, my chest expanding with it, and I didn’t think I could contain it.

Wearing a proud smile, I glanced around the space, taking in the emptiness and thinking of all the ways I intended to make this house truly feel like a home.

I’d done it.

I was officially a homeowner.

While there had been moments in my life when I’d felt proud of myself—graduating, landing my first real job in my chosen career field—nothing before now had felt like this.

My first home. I still couldn’t seem to wrap my head around my new reality.

The hard work had paid off. I’d graduated from college eight years ago when I was twenty-two and immediately enrolled in a master’s program for speech language pathology. From the moment I left home and began my undergraduate degree, I’d also been working.

Initially, I’d been working part time, since I was living on campus, but once I graduated and decided to get my master’s degree, I needed to increase my workload to full-time hours, so I could pay for rent.

It took me two years to get my advanced degree, and another year to gain the remaining work experience and testing required by the state for my licensing. And before I knew it, I was officially licensed and working at my dream job.

For the last three years, I’d been working my tail off—doing it while renting—and saving up as much money as I could.

The hard work mixed with the sacrifices I’d made had brought me to this point, where I could feel a sense of pride over having just moved in to my very first home. And it felt amazing to be here. There wasn’t a chance anything was going to top this feeling.

“Are you going to start crying?”

My grin grew as I spun around in the middle of the room until my eyes landed on my big brother, Albert. “I promise they’ll only be tears of joy.”

His features softened as he entered the room fully and moved in my direction. Much like I had just done, he glanced around the mostly empty space, taking it in. “You know, there’s the part of me that’s so proud of you for this. Honestly, Mia, I can’t tell you how happy I am for you. But I’d be lying if I said there isn’t some small part of me that kind of hates this.”

Standing right by his side, I slid my arm around the middle of his back and leaned my weight into him. “I know. But you should be used to it by now. I’ve been gone a while.”

He let out a laugh. “Yeah, but there was always the possibility of you coming back. That you’ve now bought a house here squashes the chance of that happening.”

Albert wasn’t exaggerating.

I’d left my hometown in northern Connecticut eight years ago to attend college here in Charter Oak. Other than returning home during semester breaks or summer during the four years of undergraduate, Charter Oak had become my new home. I was still in Connecticut, but I now lived two hours south of where my parents and my brother lived. Close yet far.

“All of you can always come to visit me here. We’re not that far away from each other,” I reasoned.

“You know we will. Mom and Dad were telling me two days ago that you already asked them to come and spend Christmas here this year.”

I bit my lip and feigned innocence. “You don’t mind coming here this year, do you? I just thought it would be fun to celebrate my first Christmas here. Plus, it’s a matter of weeks away, so we’ll see each other again very soon.”

Albert’s arm had wrapped around my back, and his hand had landed on my opposite shoulder. He gave me a squeeze and insisted, “Not at all. Like I said, I hate that you’re far away, but I’m really proud of you.”

He was.

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