"Scrambled Lives" by Doris Chauvancy

I never wanted to have kids. I had mom and dad. And that was enough for me.

Ever since I can remember, they've behaved like children, bratty, infantile and unrestrained. Amid all the melodrama, someone had to be the adult in the family. And on my sixth birthday, it was decided it would be me.

That year, dad showed up late for my party, smelling of cigarettes and cheap perfume. The kind his secretary wore to the company Christmas dinner a few days earlier, when she sat next to her boss looking m...