“My sister stays and you pay… or you leave”: I lived for two years with the man who said he loved me, until one morning he tried to kick me out of my own home and forgot one detail that destroyed his life.

Within two months, his business partners walked away and his sister stopped speaking to him. I spent that time in therapy learning why I had allowed someone to treat me like a bank account for so long.

I eventually bought a new place in a different neighborhood that was filled with light and plants. One night, my best friend Zoey came over to help me finish the last of the decorating.

“The funniest part is that he thought he was the one in control,” she said while we sat on my new balcony. I looked at my beautiful new home and realized that I had never felt more powerful.

I raised my glass and toasted to the fact that I finally knew the difference between a partner and a parasite. Spencer thought he was the king of my castle, but he forgot that I was the one who owned the land.