And now the yielding had stopped, and he stood there over me, twenty-nine years old, blinking, discovering that the ground he’d always stood on had a deed after all, and that the name on it was not his.

Chapter 7 — Families Are Complicated

Amber came back down in a replacement dress and the composed, glittering smile of a woman planning something.

During dinner, she rose and took the microphone.

“Families are complicated,” she said, sweet as syrup.

“Some people support you.

And some people become jealous when their children start to succeed.” Several guests glanced, as she meant them to, toward our table.

Garnet stared at his plate and said nothing.