Chapter 1

1: 1

Every summer, my husband kept the AC locked at exactly 79°F.

For years I assumed he was just looking out for the family's health.

Then one day I bumped it down a single degree, and the second Glen Dickerson saw it, he lost it right there in the living room.

"How many times have I told you not to touch that thermostat? Are you trying to get us all killed?"

I froze. One degree. How could that possibly matter this much?

I couldn't make sense of it, but I swallowed it and apologized anyway.

Instead of calming down, he dug the house deed out of the safe and slammed it on the table.

"We can't live here anymore. We're selling this place. Today."

That knocked the air out of me. I threw myself in his way.

"Have you lost your mind? Do you know what we went through to get this place? It's in the best school district in town!"

"Katherine starts high school next year, and you want to sell now?"

As I said it, our daughter came running at the sound of our voices.

I thought she'd stop him on the spot.

But she only glanced at the number on the thermostat panel.

The next thing out of her mouth made my jaw drop.

......

"Mom, if we don't sell this house, I'm dropping out. Right now."

I stood there staring at how serious she looked.

She'd always been the good one. She had never once raised her voice at me.

Back when she learned we'd emptied out six family members' savings to buy this place,

her eyes had gone red with guilt on the spot,

and she'd sworn she'd study hard and pay us back for everything.

And now, because I nudged the AC down one degree,

she was threatening to drop out to make me sell?

"Katherine Dickerson, do you have any idea what you're saying?"

I jabbed a finger at her, beside myself.

"Have you forgotten how much this house means to you?"

"And now you want to sell it over one degree on the thermostat?"

"Have the two of you gone completely insane?"

I thought my anger might snap her out of it.

Instead she jerked back two steps, glaring at me like she hated me.

"You're the one who's insane!"

She shrieked it, pointing at the thermostat on the wall,

"Why did you touch the AC? Why?"

"Don't you get it? One degree lower and this whole house is ruined!"

My head was buzzing.

It was 79 down to 77. That was all.

How did that ruin the house?

I reached out to feel her forehead,

to check if she was running a fever and out of her head.

She slapped my hand away.

"Don't touch me! Just sell the house, now!"

"Or we're all finished!"

I stood there, completely rooted.

Right then, a huge crash came from the bedroom.

I came back to myself and turned to look, and my heart clenched hard.

At some point Glen had dragged out two oversized suitcases,

and he was cramming things into them like a madman.

My clothes, Katherine's schoolbooks, even the cup off the table,

anything he could carry, he was sweeping into the cases in a blind rush.

"Glen, what are you doing?"

I ran over and grabbed his arm with everything I had.

He just shoved me straight down onto the couch.

"Doing? We can still get out, so we're moving out. Now."

His eyes were bloodshot, his forehead slick with cold sweat, his hands moving faster and faster.

"The movers are almost here. I've already got the agent lined up."

"This house goes on the market and sells today!"

As he spoke, he didn't even bother pulling the clothes off the hangers,

he balled up clothes and hangers together and rammed them in.

"Glen, you tell me exactly what is going on!"

"It's one degree on the AC, that's all!"

"What is the difference between 77 and 79?"

I scrambled up like a woman gone mad and threw my arms around the suitcase.

"This house is everything this family worked for!"

"My name is on that deed. I don't sign, you don't sell. Ever."

At that, Glen's head snapped up.

"You've got the nerve to bring up the AC?"

He erupted, kicking over the coffee table beside him.

The shatter of glass tore through the room.

"I warned you a thousand times!"

"Never, ever touch that thermostat!"

"You let everything I said go in one ear and out the other, didn't you?"

"Well, now the house is completely wrecked. Happy?"

He jabbed a finger in my face and roared,

"Pack your things. Now!"

"Even if we have to slash the price in half, it sells today!"

"You don't sign, I file for divorce!"

I stood in the wreckage, shaking all over.

Insane.

Both of them, father and daughter, had gone insane.

An affair, bankruptcy, none of that would blow up into anything like this.

All over the AC being one degree lower,

the home I'd poured more than a decade into was falling apart just like that?

"Glen, is there another woman? Are you picking a fight to force me into selling and divorcing you?"

The tears spilled over before I could stop them.

Glen clearly stalled at that.

But just as he opened his mouth to speak,

something started pounding on the front door.