The mortgage on Theresa’s house was thirty-two hundred dollars a month, and I paid it.

The utilities and upkeep ran about a thousand a month, and I paid those.

Daniel’s credit card, which was somehow always maxed out, cost between eighteen hundred and twenty-five hundred dollars every single month, and I paid that too.

When Theresa had needed unexpected surgery, I had covered the hospital bill.

When Aaron, Daniel’s older brother, had lost his job, I had covered two months of his car payments.

I had done all of it, uncomplainingly, for years, because my husband kept repeating the same sentence, like a spell.