k, a cold, digital punch to the gut. The balance of the savings a

r our daughter Stella' s pri

pet and stale dreams. For five years, I had played the part of the dutiful, soft-spoken wife, the woman who had given up a life of im

epair shop, grease under his nails, I didn' t

for Stella' s sch

the confirmation I needed. He couldn' t meet my

sked, my voice kept

lotchy red. "Look, Maria, don' t

eed to know where one hundred a

of the silence, his words spilling o

r an emergency or a medical bill. It was for a down payment on a house for his younger brother, Ryan, in one of Austi

itiful mix of guilt and defiance, expe

a slow, under

an. Is th

hrown off. "What do you

tasting like poison in my mouth. "Ryan is your brother. He and G

. He sagged against the doorframe, a puppet with i

the small table where the private school brochures were piled up and swept them into the trash

"But... we wanted the best for her.

we? We have to make sacrifices for family." I let the word 'we' hang in th

r of true distress in his eyes. "Maybe I can ask my

k for a gift back. Besides, you know my family cut me off. We don' t ha

were in this struggle together, that my vast family fortune was forever out of rea

without a knock. His mother stood t

oring me. "Ryan and Gabrielle found the perfect house! But there' s a small probl