His right hand went automatically to his vest pocket and took out his silver pocket watch.

“Where did you get this?” he asked.

“The academy archive,” I said.

“In 2020 you told me you couldn’t afford the plane tickets.”

He checked the watch face, though the brass hands hadn’t moved past nine o’clock.

“Your mother handled all the travel arrangements,” he said, his voice dropping an octave.

“She canceled the plane tickets eighteen hours before the ceremony to get eight hundred dollars back,” I said.

“And three days earlier, she wired thirty thousand dollars to Derek’s fraternity.”