I’m Ryan, I’m 19, and my hands are still shaking as I write this. What happened feels like one of those stories where karma takes its time, then shows up with receipts. Before everything went sideways, life was simple. My mom, Melissa, loved me out loud—Friday night mac and cheese, forehead kisses I pretended I’d outgrown, the beat-up Subaru that always smelled like coffee and rain. When I was nine, breast cancer took her fast. Before she died, she set up a $25,000 trust for me to receive at eighteen. She said, “College, a first place—something that makes you proud....
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