“This is a bottomless pit of debt, Linda, and we have to be realistic.”

Linda smoothed the front of her dark sweater.

“People at the club will talk if we don’t authorize the care.”

“We have to keep up some kind of standard.”

“Let them talk,” Richard said.

“We spent twenty years building our financial security,” he said.

“I’m not tearing down the foundation for an endless series of bills.”

“We can’t just walk away without an explanation,” Linda said.