I don't know if this even counts as a confession, really. It’s not like I’ve stolen anything or hurt anyone, not directly anyway. I mean, I *think* maybe I’ve hurt myself, but I guess that’s just… normal? It’s stupid, I know. I’m only 26, and I’m supposed to be, I don’t know, thriving? Building something? Everyone around here seems to think I am, anyway. They see the business my family built, the one I’m supposedly taking over, and they just nod and smile and say how proud they are. And I smile back, because what else am I supposed to do? Tell them that the only thing I feel is this slow-burning fury that I can't seem to shake? It’s not fair. I just… I hate it here. I hate that my dad, who’s 53 and should be easing into things, is still practically glued to the place, even though he insists I’m in charge. He’s always been like that, I guess, bringing everything home, making everything about work. Our dinner table was basically a board meeting every night. And now that my siblings are gone, off to bigger cities and actual careers, it’s just me. And him. And the empty house at night. He says he misses them, and I know he does, but I swear, half the time he just misses having someone else to talk shop with. Someone to bounce ideas off of for the farm, for the store, for whatever new thing he’s decided we need to expand into. I just want to scream. I want to tell him to stop. To just STOP. I don’t know. I think maybe I’m just angry. Angry at him for… for everything. For making me feel like this is my only option. For not teaching me how to be anything else. And angry at myself, too, because I just don’t have the guts to leave. Everyone here knows me, knows my family. If I just up and left, it would be… I don’t even know what it would be. A scandal, probably. Another one of those hushed conversations in the grocery store aisle. And then what? Where would I even go? What would I even do? I just sit here sometimes, after he’s finally gone to bed, staring at the walls, and I feel like I’m trapped in some kind of horrible, suffocating velvet cage. And I just want to smash something. Anything.