When she saw the tiny kitchen, she laughed.
“Mom would faint if she saw these countertops.”
I smiled.
“Do you like them?”
Chloe examined the scratched laminate.
“Actually, yes.”
“Then that’s enough.”
She looked at me for a long moment.
“Was it really that simple all along?”
I thought about our childhood.
“No.”
Then I hugged her.
“But it can be that simple from now on.”
David and I also began the difficult work of rebuilding honesty in our marriage.
He showed me the structure of Vanguard Alpha and explained what he owned, what he controlled, and what belonged to investors.
I asked questions he had avoided answering for years.
Sometimes the conversations were uncomfortable.
Sometimes I became angry all over again.
He listened anyway.
We agreed that no amount of wealth entitled either of us to make important family decisions without the other.
We also agreed that Leo would grow up understanding money without confusing it with love.
