Chapter 4

That weekend, my mother insisted we all come home for dinner.

Daphne hadn't wanted to go. She only agreed after my mother called her herself.

At the table, Cole tried a few times to lighten the mood, and each time my mother glared him back into silence.

Halfway through the meal, she set down her chopsticks.

"Al, when Daphne went to her interview, how much did you charge her?"

"Two hundred twenty-six dollars and twenty cents."

My mother's face changed on the spot.

"You even took the change?"

"It's not about the amount. It's about the principle."

I said the words I'd had ready for a while.

"Daphne used to track every cent. When Cole borrowed someone else's car, she made him pay back the eighteen hundred. All I did was work out what the car actually costs to run. What's wrong with that?"

Cole quickly ducked his head and shoveled rice into his mouth.

Daphne turned to look at him.

"Tell Mom what that eighteen hundred was for."

Cole mumbled, "Wasn't it just the repair money?"

"You rear-ended someone driving our car. That was your fault. The repaint cost the other driver eighteen hundred, you said you were short on cash, so I fronted it out of the mortgage account. I told you to pay it back a month later. Is that me charging you rent on a car?"

Cole went quiet.

But I felt she was dodging the real point.

"See, you still draw the line so sharp. Family's family. What difference does it make who pays?"

"Is that right?"

Daphne pulled up a photo on her phone and set it in front of me.

Two transfer records from the day before yesterday.

One was three hundred dollars she'd sent me, with the memo "car rental."

The other was seventy-three dollars and eighty cents I'd refunded her, with the memo "deposit balance."

"I went looking for work to bring our income back up. Cole drove to meet his girlfriend's parents, and that was his private business too. He didn't have to pay a thing, didn't have to cover the scratched rim either. I go back and forth to an interview, and not only do I pay by the mile, I even have to front the gas that should already have been in your car."

"Alvin, the line you drew was never public versus private."

"The line you drew was your family, and me."

My mother's eyes went red at once.

"Daphne, sweetheart, I didn't know about any of this."

"Mom, it's not your fault."

Her tone stayed level.

"I came today to lay out the rest of the plan clearly."

She took out a printed list.

"I passed the second interview. I start Monday. The company's far from here, with early and late shifts, so I've rented a place nearby. Until things between us are settled, I'll keep covering the mortgage and the HOA at the same share as before. I've already handed off Mom's rehab schedule to Alvin, so it won't just cut off overnight."

Panic rose in my chest as I listened.

"What do you mean, until things between us are settled?"

"Exactly what it sounds like."

Daphne set a draft divorce agreement on the table.

"Alvin, let's get divorced."

Cole sucked in a sharp breath.

But my first reaction was that it was absurd.

"Over two hundred dollars?"

Daphne looked at me for a long time.

"You still think, even now, that this is about two hundred dollars."

She put away her phone, stood, and said goodbye to my mother.

I chased her to the door and grabbed her suitcase.

"Daphne, calm down. You get a job lined up and right away you're talking divorce. Is it that you feel like you've got the upper hand again?"

She pried my fingers loose one by one, and said the words I'll never forget for the rest of my life.