“And the empty plate?” I asked softly.

“Was that part of protecting the family image too?” Daniel dropped his head, unable to meet my eyes.

“Mom was furious,” he admitted, “because you refused to pay for her trip to the resort last month.” And I sat back in my chair, because I had not known that, and the last piece fell into place.

The dinner had not been a random act of spite.

Two weeks earlier, Theresa had asked me for thirty-five hundred dollars to fund a family beach vacation, and I had told her no, explaining that I had just reinvested a large amount of capital into new equipment for my firm.