We went down to South Beach to ring in the New Year with Chloe, Mark, Ethan, and his family. Make do with whatever is in the pantry. Don’t go crying to David and playing the victim. He’s working hard for all of us.
Maya clutched my arm, her eyes wide with terror.
“Please don’t confront her. She’ll just say I turned you against her.”
I didn’t yell. My anger was far too massive to be expressed through noise. I took out my phone and snapped clear photos of the empty fridge, the cold instant soup, the bloodstain on her sweater, and the note. Then I wrapped Liam in my heavy winter coat, lifted Maya into my arms, and carried her out the door.
In the cab on the way to the hospital, while New Year’s fireworks lit up the Manhattan skyline across the East River, my wife shivered with a rising fever. Before slipping my phone into my pocket, I opened my banking app and canceled every authorized user card linked to my account—the ones my mother, my sister, and her husband Mark used daily.
At that exact hour, they were sipping champagne at a five-star resort in South Beach, convinced my income was a bottomless pit. They had no idea what was waiting for them when the sun came up.