I returned home unannounced after four years in Canada and found my wife with a shaved head, terribly thin and struggling alone in the backyard. My mother said she had sought that punishment herself. I didn't scream. Instead, I got my phone...

Clara begged to let her call me.

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Then Vivian went out into the yard wearing the golden necklace with a hummingbird that I had given to Clara for our fifth anniversary.

“He has a right to know that I’m sick,” Clara said.

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“You’re not going to worry about it,” Vivian replied. “He’s working to get through, not to carry your dramas.”

Clara said the doctor wanted her to continue the treatment.

Vivian despised what the doctors had said.

Then he uttered the phrase that stirred my stomach.

“My son sends the money to my account. That means I decide how it is used.”

Clara pointed to the new SUV outside, Derek’s newly opened mechanic shop and remodeled house.

Then he said he had been sleeping in the shed.

“I just want to finish my treatment,” he whispered.

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