“Your Brother Deserves It,” My Father Said — They Gave Him Everything

boy.” He looked at my mother and said, “Finally, a Patterson to carry on the family name,” as if I hadn’t existed for the previous seven years—as if “Patterson” was a word that only meant something when attached to a son.

That moment set the tone for the next twenty-five years.

The favoritism wasn’t dramatic enough to call abuse. It was the quieter kind—the continue reading …