“I will be fine,” I said out loud to the empty hallway, testing the weight of the lie.

But my hands were shaking. There was no one else in the house. My father had left three years ago for a “new start” in Arizona, and my mother’s version of parenting had always been… detached. But this was new. This was Europe. For a month.

I tried to pretend this was some kind of challenge I could win. A survivor reality show where the prize was my mother’s approval.