I Came Home Unannounced After Four Years Abroad and Found My Wife Starved and Shaved in the Backyard. My Mother Said She’d Brought It on Herself. I Didn’t Yell

“I feel dizzy,” she said.

“I haven’t eaten since yesterday.” And my brother laughed — laughed out loud — and said, “With everything you stole from this family, you ought to be able to buy yourself a feast.”

Then my mother came out, and I saw, glinting at her throat in the afternoon sun, the gold hummingbird necklace I had given Phedra for our fifth anniversary.

It was on Selina’s neck.

Phedra was begging, quietly, to be allowed to call me — he has a right to know I’m sick — and Selina cut her off flat.