My Parents Chose a Birthday Dinner Over My Family’s Funeral—Then They Asked for Thirty Percent of the $18.7 Million Settlement

“We can’t come right now.”

I pressed my forehead against the cool partition beside the phone.

“Dad.

The children are gone.”

“Melissa has planned this dinner for months.

We have twenty people here.

Your mother has spent three days on the cake.”

“She is thirty.”