“Mom has her monthly pension and three fixed bank CDs,” I said.

“You’re starving your own child and driving our mother into financial ruin,” Caroline said, raising her voice until the cashier at register two glanced over.

She checked her fingernails and looked straight at a woman holding a tub of margarine.

“Everybody in this county knows what you did on Christmas Eve.

You locked Lucy in a back pantry and went out shopping.”

“You typed that safety report at two o’clock on Christmas Eve, before I’d even left my house,” I said.