“Your mother showed me the brochure,” Gabriel said, softly, into the buzzing quiet.

“During my senior year of high school.

She sat me down, and she showed me the legal brochure for Pinecrest, and she told me that you and Gemma were both going to be adults soon, and that Gemma was becoming a permanent burden that nobody in your family intended to carry.”

“That is not true,” I said, and my heart was slamming against my ribs.

“That is not true.