Chloe confessed that she had spent over six hundred dollars at the airport duty-free shops on the way out — designer sunglasses, perfume, wireless headphones — charging all of it to the room reservation, confident that Jason’s card would clear it.

“I thought you were covering everything!” she snapped at him.

“With what money, Chloe?!” Jason said, staring at her.

“With Clara’s!

You told us not to worry about the expenses!”

And for the first time in the whole of their lives together, my mother-in-law did not rush to her daughter’s defense.