Joyce looked from Brian to the ruined macaroni, then back to me. “Wait,” she said slowly. “You expected Nora to pay for all this again?” The room went quiet. Brian immediately tried to say it wasn’t about money, but Caleb reminded everyone exactly what Brian had said three weeks earlier: if Nora wanted to eat, she should buy her own food.
I went upstairs and brought down the folder. Inside were grocery receipts, utility bills, repair invoices, and expenses from nearly every family gathering that year. Thanksgiving. Birthdays. Football Sundays. The total surprised even me. Joyce flipped through several pages before looking at her son. “So when you told everyone you were hosting us, Nora was actually paying for most of it?”
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