Chapter 6
“Can we stop?”
“Vanessa,” Dad warned.
“No, seriously. This is exhausting.”
She looked directly at me.
“You went to Tokyo. You stayed in some insane hotel. Everyone saw it. Congratulations. Do we really need to sit here acting like you had some traumatic childhood because your birthday was close to Christmas?”
The old me would have frozen.
Instead, I felt strangely calm.
“Did you know I never had a birthday party?”
She rolled her eyes.
“You had birthdays.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know because you never had to notice.”
“Oh, please.”
“Vanessa.”
Dad’s voice was sharper now.
She ignored him.
“You always do this. You act like you’re better than everyone because you have some finance job and your condo and your trips.”
I stared at her.
There it was.
Something I hadn’t expected.
Resentment.
“You think I’m better than you?”
“You clearly do.”
“No. I think Mom and Dad treated us differently.”
“That’s not my fault.”
“I never said it was.”
“You make it sound like I stole something from you.”
“I didn’t say that either.”
“Then what do you want me to do? Apologize because Mom threw me birthday parties?”
“No.”
She stared at me.
“I want you to stop pretending they didn’t.”
That landed.
Her expression shifted.
I continued.
“You didn’t create the favoritism. You were a kid too. But you’re twenty-four now. When Mom tells you they couldn’t afford to celebrate my birthday and then spends thousands on yours, you know that isn’t true.”
Vanessa looked at Mom.
Mom immediately said, “This isn’t about money.”
I laughed softly.
“Exactly.”
Dad looked at her.
For once, he didn’t rescue the explanation.
Mom noticed.
“So I’m the villain now?”
“No,” Dad said.
His voice was quiet.
“We both are.”
Mom stared at him.
“What?”
Dad folded his hands.
“I read through old credit card statements.”
I looked at him.
So did Vanessa.
Mom’s face changed.
“Why would you do that?”
“Because Nora was right.”
He reached into his jacket and placed several folded pages on the table.
I didn’t touch them.
Dad continued.
“The year Nora turned sixteen, we told her we couldn’t afford a party.”
Mom looked uncomfortable.
“We had Christmas expenses.”
“That same month, we put down the deposit for Vanessa’s summer riding program.”
Vanessa blinked.
“How much?”
Dad looked at her.
“Eight thousand four hundred dollars.”
Nobody spoke.
“The year Nora turned twenty-one, we spent seventy-eight dollars on her birthday gift.”