“Did all of this really come out of your own accounts, Gwen?” she asked.

“Every penny,” I said quietly.

“And Brandon,” she said, turning now to look at her nephew, “never paid a single cent of it back?”

I shook my head, and let the silence do the rest.

Brandon slammed his open hand down flat on the plastic table, hard enough to rattle the cups.

“We’re supposed to be a family!” he said.

“You can’t turn every single household expense into some kind of formal debt!”