Her television ran until dawn.

“You can’t stay forever,” she told him on the second night.

“I’m your brother.”

“And I have bills.”

Garrett stared at her.

He had heard those words from Iris so often that their meaning should have been familiar.

Coming from Priscilla, they sounded like betrayal.

He returned to his bag and opened a copy of the household budget Iris had given him during a tax discussion the previous spring.