Mom blinked at me.
“You’re refusing to help your own brother?”
“I’m refusing to hand over one point two million dollars because three people who haven’t spoken to me in five years decided I should.”
“He’s your brother.”
“He was also invited to my wedding.”
Logan looked up sharply.
“Why do you keep throwing that in my face?”
“Because you were supposed to be there.”
“You have no idea what was happening then.”
“You had five years to tell me.”
He had no response.
My father dropped the attorney’s letter onto the table.
“So this is what success did to you.”
I studied his face.
“No.
Success just made your expectations expensive enough that I finally had to see them clearly.”
Mom stood.
She crossed to the window, folded her arms, and stared toward the driveway.
Toward the Porsche.
“That car costs more than some people’s houses,” she said.
“That’s true.”
“And you won’t help your family.”
I understood what she was trying to do.
She wanted the car to become evidence against me.
If I could spend $135,000 on something unnecessary, then refusing them anything larger could be presented as cruelty.
But the numbers weren’t the real issue.
I could have written a check for two million dollars.
That didn’t mean they had the right to demand one.
“I bought the car because I wanted it,” I said.
“I didn’t buy it with your money.
I didn’t borrow from Logan.
I didn’t ask anyone in this room to sacrifice for it.”
Dad scoffed.
“You had advantages.”
“Of course I did.
Most people do in some form.
But none of those advantages gave you ownership of what I built.”
He leaned toward me.
“We are not strangers, Caroline.”
“No.
Strangers usually RSVP.”
Logan closed his eyes for a second.
Mom turned away from the window.
“That was cruel.”
I shook my head.
“No.
Cruel was leaving three chairs empty and never calling afterward.
This is just accurate.”
For the first time, nobody interrupted me.
I gathered the papers and placed them back inside my folder.
My father reached for their proposal.
“You’re making a mistake.”
“Maybe.”
“People remember how they were treated.”
That sentence almost made me laugh.
Instead I looked directly at him.
