Melissa’s eyes went to slits. “We have a system in this house, Iris. Everyone under this roof earns their keep. Mom understands that.”

Earns her keep. In the house her daughter bought her.

Derek pivoted loudly into his plans for the property — a composite deck, a fire pit. “And down the line,” he said, chewing, “we fix it up and flip it.

Get some acreage out in the county.”

He was casually discussing the sale of a six-hundred-thousand-dollar asset he did not own.

I stood, kissed the top of my mother’s head, and said I needed to go to the bank to exchange currency. On my way past the island I palmed a stack of opened mail.