Paid for my sister’s wedding, and my mother sent me a message: «You don’t have to come to the celebration. Your stepfather thinks you’re ruining the family photo.» The next morning they received a notification that made everyone in the family FURIOUS…

Maybe it’s time to match the image?» They both laughed, but Alex felt the decision was right. The last months had radically changed his outlook on life. Liberation from toxic family relationships was like lifting an invisible burden from his shoulders, finally allowing him to listen to his own desires, not others’ expectations.

The house he had eyed was exactly what he’d been missing in recent years—space, silence, room for creativity and work. Two-story, made of glued laminated timber, with panoramic windows in the living room overlooking the forest. Large kitchen, three bedrooms, office, spacious veranda, and a 0.3-acre lot partially planted with fruit trees.

$250,000 including all furniture, Alex explained to his friend. The owner is urgently moving abroad, so selling almost for nothing. Sounds like a great deal, agreed Andrew.

And work? You’re not planning to commute to the office every day from the suburbs? Switching to remote, Alex sipped his whiskey. Already arranged. Two days a week, I’ll come to the office, the rest—work from home.

And in the future, thinking about my own cybersecurity business. Wow! You’ve really thought it all out. After so many years living by someone else’s script, it’s time to write my own.

At the end of March, when the snow had almost melted, revealing the first signs of spring, Alex finally moved to his new house. The process was challenging, taking several weeks to move things, buy missing furniture, set up reliable internet for work. But the result exceeded all expectations.

On an early April morning, Alex stepped onto the veranda with a cup of freshly brewed coffee, inhaled the forest air deeply, and felt an amazing calm spreading inside. For the first time in many years, he felt at home. Not in a place where he temporarily stayed, but in a real home where every corner matched his ideas of comfort and harmony.

The day started early; at six in the morning, Alex was already up. An hour for a run on forest trails, then breakfast on the veranda if the weather allowed, and at nine, to the desk in the spacious office. The panoramic windows let in enough light not to turn on lamps even on cloudy days.

Evenings he devoted to landscaping the lot or reading by the fireplace. The old phone number now rarely bothered him with calls. His mother hadn’t contacted since they moved out of the apartment.

Mary called about once every two weeks, at first awkwardly, as if afraid to touch a sore subject, then more naturally. «How did you settle in there?» asked Alex during one such call, lounging in a chair on the veranda. Tolerably, fatigue was in his sister’s voice.

Victor still grumbles about the long commute to work. «Mom! Well, you know Mom. She thinks you treated us cruelly.»

«And you?» asked Alex, looking at the sunset painting the forest in warm orange tones. «I.» Mary paused.

«I understand you, Alex. As hard as it is to admit, but we’re to blame ourselves. Especially me. You can’t treat your own brother like that.»

«Maybe it’s for the best,» Alex said thoughtfully. «Sometimes you need a strong push to understand what you really want from life. And what do you want?» Interest appeared in his sister’s voice.

To live my own life. Create my space. Not constantly look back at others’ standards and expectations…