“Greenery. Candles. Grocery-store flowers.”
June nodded approvingly.
“Don’t sound too pleased.”
“I worked hard for this moment.”
Claire laughed.
Then grew serious.
“We’ll pay for it.”
“Good.”
“No hints.”
“Better.”
Claire held out her hand.
June looked at it.
Then shook it.
A strange gesture for family.
Maybe appropriate for a new agreement.
—
Ethan began repaying the loan in February.
Two hundred fifty dollars on the first of every month.
The first transfer came with a message.
Payment 1.
June replied:
Received.
Nothing else.
It was not punishment.
It was structure.
He and Claire entered counseling in March.
June learned because Ethan told her.
She resisted asking what they discussed.
That might have been her greatest act of restraint that year.
Instead, she focused on her own life.
She reduced hotel shifts from five days to four.
The lost income frightened her.
Then she calculated what she was no longer giving away.
It balanced.
In April, she replaced the kitchen cabinet doors.
In May, she took a weekend trip to Montreal with Marisol.
They stayed in a hotel where neither of them cleaned anything.
Marisol left towels on the floor deliberately.
June picked them up automatically.
“You need treatment,” Marisol said.
