You’re sitting on fourteen thousand dollars you don’t even use.”

“That money is my long-term security,” I said.

“You have a military housing allowance, free medical care, and a steady paycheck,” she said, her voice sharpening like steel on stone.

“You have no mortgage, no children, and no social standing to keep up out here.”

She smoothed her lapel again, her gold ring catching the late afternoon sun.

“We raised you, Sarah,” she said.

“We paid for your high school uniform, your sports gear, your summer camps.