“Dad?”
Madison suddenly screamed, “Don’t tell her!”
Mr. Hale exhaled.
“There is a pending purchase agreement for a condominium.”
My stomach tightened.
“Whose condominium?”
Mom whispered, “Madison’s.”
I actually smiled.
Not because it was funny.
Because sometimes betrayal becomes so enormous that your brain stops treating it like reality.
“You were going to mortgage my house to buy Madison a condo?”
“She needs stability,” Mom said.
“And I don’t?”
“You’re stronger.”
There it was.
The sentence that had governed my entire childhood.
You’re stronger.
Meaning Claire can wait.
Claire can
