The paper was a printed room assignment Delaney had made for the lodge. Every adult and child had a room listed. Beside my name, someone had written: “HOME — tell her after we leave.” That was when I understood this had not been a last-minute oversight. They had deliberately waited until Christmas Eve morning because they assumed I would be too embarrassed to cancel something the children were already excited about. I returned to my laptop and made three changes permitted under the reservation terms: canceled the lodge booking, canceled the prepaid ski package, and removed my card authorization from the remaining holiday activities. I lost a cancellation fee, but most of the $9,800 was refundable because the lodge could still resell the holiday rooms.
...
