I never thought a text from my dad could ruin my week. But that\u2019s how I ended up sitting in my room, crying over a Lego rocket set meant for my little brother\u2019s birthday.Ryan\u2019s only seven, full of life, and he always says, \u201cYou\u2019re my favorite person, Britt.\u201d I\u2019ve been at every birthday since he was born. But this year, Dad\u2019s new wife, Melissa, banned me. She said I \u201ctook attention away\u201d from him. And my dad\u2014he just went along with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I stayed home until Grandpa showed up, telling me, \u201cGrab that gift. You\u2019re his sister. Nobody erases that.\u201d We drove straight to the party.When we walked in, the room froze. Melissa\u2019s face tightened, ready to send me away again. But then Ryan spotted me.\u201cSissy!\u201d he shouted, running straight into my arms. His smile\u2014pure joy\u2014was worth everything. He tore open the gift, gasping when he saw the rocket set. \u201cMy sister got me the best present ever!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Melissa tried to protest, but Grandpa shut her down. \u201cYou don\u2019t get to erase her. Not from this family.\u201d Even Dad finally admitted, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Britt. I should\u2019ve stood up for you.\u201dRyan made me sit next to him for cake. Right before blowing out the candles, he whispered, \u201cI wish you\u2019d always be here.\u201dAnd I will. Because no matter what anyone says, he\u2019s my brother. And I\u2019ll never let anyone make me a stranger in my own family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I never thought a text from my dad could ruin my week. But that\u2019s how I ended up sitting in my room, crying over a Lego rocket… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":1069,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":859,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions\/859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}