what I mean.”
“Yes.”
I looked at him.
“I do.”
Genevieve stepped forward.
“This is incredibly unfair.”
I looked at her.
“You weren’t invited to my dinner either.”
Her face hardened.
“That was different.”
“Why?”
She had no answer.
I nodded.
“That’s what I thought.”
Benjamin looked exhausted.
For the first time, he didn’t look like my son.
He looked like a man who had just discovered that the safety net beneath him had never belonged to him.
“How much did you cancel?”
I looked at Richard.
He answered.
“One hundred seventy-four recurring payments and authorizations.”
Benjamin’s face went white.
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
“Mom.”
I said nothing.
“You can’t just abandon us.”
I almost smiled.
“Abandon you?”
“Yes.”
I looked at him for a long moment.
“Benjamin, you are forty-eight years old.”
He looked away.
“You have a wife.”
Silence.
“You have a career.”
Nothing.
“You have a house.”
