Why did my parents pay a fortune to make sure I was born a girl? #shorts — Transcript

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1. 0:00Why did my parents pay a fortune to make
2. 0:01sure I was born a girl? Growing up, I
3. 0:03was the only girl in a house with four
4. 0:04older brothers, and everyone treated me
5. 0:06like I was made of glass. My brothers
6. 0:07wore hand-me-downs and worked weekend
7. 0:08jobs at 15. I got private tutors, a car
8. 0:10the day I turned 16, and a college fund
9. 0:12nobody talked about. I spent my whole
10. 0:13childhood feeling guilty, like I'd taken
11. 0:15something that belonged to them. What I
12. 0:16didn't understand until my grandmother's
13. 0:18funeral 3 weeks ago was that I was the
14. 0:20thing that had been taken. We buried
15. 0:21Grandma Vivian on a gray Tuesday, and
16. 0:23afterward the family squeezed into a
17. 0:24lawyer's office that smelled like old
18. 0:25paper. My four brothers, Caleb, Nathan,
19. 0:27Elias, and Rory, lined up along the back
20. 0:29wall the way they always did, like
21. 0:30afterthoughts. I sat in the front row
22. 0:31between my parents. The seat I'd
23. 0:32occupied my whole life without ever
24. 0:34asking why it was mine. The lawyer, Mr.
25. 0:35Prescott, cleared his throat and said
26. 0:37the estate was conditional. My father
27. 0:38sat up so straight I heard his chair
28. 0:40creak. Prescott began reading, and at
29. 0:41first it was ordinary. The house, some
30. 0:43savings, a little for each grandchild.
31. 0:44Then he reached a section titled the
32. 0:46trust, and the room changed. He read
33. 0:47that Grandma Vivian had set aside close
34. 0:49to $4 million, and that this money was
35. 0:50reserved, in her exact words, for the
36. 0:52first granddaughter born into this
37. 0:53family. Every head in that room turned
38. 0:55toward me. I laughed, thinking it was
39. 0:56sweet, until I saw my mother wasn't
40. 0:57laughing. Her knuckles were white in her
41. 0:59lap. Caleb, my oldest brother, leaned
42. 1:00forward. Wait, he said slowly. The first
43. 1:02granddaughter, but you had us first.
44. 1:03Four boys. So how did she know there'd
45. 1:04ever be a girl? He stopped, and in the
46. 1:06silence, I watched both my parents
47. 1:07refuse to look at anyone. That night I
48. 1:08couldn't sleep, so I did something I'd
49. 1:10never dared to do. I went through the
50. 1:11locked file box in my dad's closet. The
51. 1:12key was taped under the lid, like some
52. 1:14part of him had always wanted it found.
53. 1:15Inside were my medical records from
54. 1:17before I was born. Not just records,
55. 1:18invoices. A fertility clinic three
56. 1:20states away. A procedure I had to look
57. 1:21up at 2:00 in the morning.
58. 1:22Preimplantation sex selection. There was
59. 1:23a signed consent form. My parents had
60. 1:25paid in full to guarantee the embryo
61. 1:26they used would be a girl. I sat on that
62. 1:28closet floor and felt my whole life
63. 1:29rearrange. The tutors, the car, the way
64. 1:31my mother watched me like an investment.
65. 1:32I wasn't spoiled because they loved me
66. 1:34more. I was maintained. I was the key
67. 1:35that unlocked $4 million my grandmother
68. 1:37had dangled just out of reach, and my
69. 1:39parents had spent 20 years and a fortune
70. 1:40building a daughter to fit the lock. The
71. 1:42next morning, my mother was already
72. 1:43making my favorite breakfast, the one
73. 1:44she only made when she wanted something.
74. 1:46"Sweetheart," she said too brightly,
75. 1:47"Mr. Prescott needs a few signatures
76. 1:49from you this week. Just paperwork. The
77. 1:50trust releases once you sign it to us."
78. 1:52And there was the last piece. The money
79. 1:54didn't go to them. It came to me.
80. 1:55Grandma Vivian, who everyone swore was
81. 1:57sharp until her final breath, hadn't
82. 1:58left a cent to my parents. She'd left it
83. 2:00to the granddaughter they were desperate
84. 2:01enough to manufacture. And she'd made
85. 2:02sure that granddaughter had to sign it
86. 2:03away herself, of her own free will, at
87. 2:0521. I turn 21 in 9 days. My father
88. 2:07walked in, saw the file box under my
89. 2:09arm, and went pale. "Where did you get
90. 2:10that?" Not a question. My brothers
91. 2:11drifted into the kitchen one by one, and
92. 2:13for the first time in my life, I wasn't
93. 2:15sitting up front alone. I laid the
94. 2:16invoices on the table where everyone
95. 2:17could see them. "You didn't want a
96. 2:18daughter," I said. "You wanted a
97. 2:19signature." My mother started crying the
98. 2:20way she cried when she needed the room
99. 2:22back on her side. My father started
100. 2:23explaining about providing for this
101. 2:24family and what
102. 2:26parent would do. I let them talk. Then I
103. 2:27looked at my four brothers, the ones
104. 2:28called afterthoughts their whole lives,
105. 2:29and I understood we'd all been robbed by
106. 2:31the same two people, just in opposite
107. 2:32directions. I picked up the phone and
108. 2:34called Mr. Prescott. My parents went
109. 2:35still, certain I was about to sign. "I
110. 2:37want to know," I said, watching my
111. 2:38father's face, "what happens to the
112. 2:39trust if the granddaughter declines it?"
113. 2:40Prescott was quiet a moment. He told me
114. 2:42if I said no, every cent went to the
115. 2:44children's hospital named in the will.
116. 2:45Nothing to my parents, not ever. My
117. 2:47mother reached for my hand. "Baby, think
118. 2:48about this family." I looked at the
119. 2:49brothers my parents had spent 20 years
120. 2:51treating like nothing, and I made my
121. 2:52choice right there in the kitchen. "I
122. 2:53already did," I said. "You should have
123. 2:54raised a daughter instead of a thief."