He was quiet, but his voice carried.

“Since we’re talking about money,” he said, “let’s talk about who put down most of the payment on this apartment.”

Wilhelmina went white.

For years she had told relatives the apartment was her son’s, purchased by her son, though Ansel had not contributed a dollar of the down payment.

Odalind’s parents had.

I watched that single fact land on her, and it was the first time in five years I had ever seen Wilhelmina genuinely rattled, because my father had just pulled the thread that held her entire self together.