A man can be a single monster.

But it takes a family, working together across three generations, to make a child’s worthlessness into a tradition.

And I decided, over that broth, that my daughter would be raised as far from that tradition as a mother with a billion dollars and a very good lawyer could possibly carry her.

The instant the door shut behind her, I pressed the call button and told the startled nurse that I would be discharging myself that afternoon.

Chapter 5 — The Hollowed Cavern