I stared at my mom for a few seconds… then I started laughing again.
"Mom… you're joking right?"
She didn't laugh.
Her face stayed completely serious.
My smile slowly disappeared.
"Mum… what do you mean?"
She walked further into my room and sat on the edge of my bed.
For a moment she didn't say anything. She just looked at me like she was thinking about something really important.
"Sweetie… there are things about our family you don't know."
I frowned. "What things?"
She sighed.
"Our company… the one your father built before he died… it's about to collapse."
I sat up in bed. "What does that have to do with me becoming a boy?"
She looked at me again.
"Everything."
My heart started beating faster.
"In our family," she continued slowly, "the company can only be inherited by a male heir. It's written into the original contract your grandfather made years ago."
"What? That's stupid."
"I know," she said quietly. "But if we break that rule… we lose everything. The house, the company, all of it."
I shook my head.
"So change the contract!"
"It's not that simple."
She stood up and walked to the window.
"The board members would never accept it. They've already been waiting for an excuse to remove us."
My chest felt tight.
"So… you're serious?" I asked.
"You really want to turn me into a boy?"
She turned around and looked straight at me.
"Yes."
I stared at her like she had just lost her mind.
"That's impossible!"
She walked to the small table beside my bed and opened a black box I had never seen before..
"It's not impossible,"
My stomach dropped.
"Tomorrow… Andrea will disappear."
"And Andrew will take her place."
I swallowed.
For the first time since the conversation started… I realized she wasn't joking at all.
And suddenly my birthday didn't feel like a fairy tale anymore
It felt like the beginning of a nightmare...