The Last Cent I Owed

"Since she was ten, every dollar Sadie spent on herself has gone into her mother’s “Independence Ledger”—phone bills, school activities, even part of an ER visit. On her eighteenth birthday, her parents demand the final $1,184.73 while paying without question for her nine-year-old sister’s piano lessons and music camp. Sadie earns every cent, but her mother refuses to write off even the last penny. So Sadie leaves that penny—and her house key—on top of the ledger and heads to Boston. Only then do her parents realize that the daughter they praised for being “easy” had simply stopped asking to be loved. By the time they learn to care without keeping score, will Sadie still want to come home?"