Whenever I mentioned the comments to Graham, he offered the same explanation.
“That’s just how Mom talks, sweetheart. She doesn’t mean anything by it.”
He wasn’t deliberately cruel.
He simply couldn’t understand what it felt like to be the constant target of those supposedly harmless observations.
For years, I convinced myself that if I made a little more effort, eventually they would accept me.
I brought expensive bottles of wine.
I searched for thoughtful birthday presents.
I volunteered to prepare complicated recipes.
I even spent weeks recreating a traditional meat
