Chapter 1

Our old house back home was about to be demolished, and I was just getting ready to bring it up at the dinner table.

My daughter-in-law spoke first. "Mom, my brother's getting married!"

I'd watched her younger brother, Robert, grow up, and as an elder I certainly meant to help him out with his wedding.

But before I could even say a word, my daughter-in-law set down her chopsticks, her tone serious and a little resentful.

"Mom, why don't you make good on the bride gift you owe me? Robert's still a little short for the wedding."

Walter and I were both taken aback. "Make good on a bride gift?"

Hildegarde's family was a single-parent household. Her father had died in a car accident years ago, and her mother never really had a job.

When she married in, she didn't ask for a bride gift. Her only condition was that our family raise her younger brother, Robert, until he graduated from college.

Now that Robert was grown, she was asking us to make up the bride gift.

Once it sank in, I gave a self-mocking little laugh. "Making up the bride gift is fine, but then you can make up Robert's living expenses for these past twelve years too!"

...

"Mom, it's not fair of you to talk like that. You agreed to raise Robert yourselves back then!" Hildegarde was getting a little annoyed.

I set down my chopsticks too and looked at her evenly. "And you were the one who offered not to take a bride gift in the first place!"

"But now Robert's getting married, and his fiancée's family is asking for three hundred thousand dollars. Where are we supposed to get that kind of money?"

"When I married into this family, I didn't take a single cent of bride gift. You and Dad have such big pensions—what's the harm in making up a little for me?" she said, as if she were completely in the right.

I looked over at my son beside her. "Is that what you think too?"

Hildegarde's eyes turned sharp as she stared straight at Lucas. "We settled this last night. You promised you'd make up the bride gift for me! Three hundred thousand, not a cent less!"

Lucas glanced at her and coughed a couple of times. "Mom, well... I think, you know, making up the bride gift isn't wrong! After all, we didn't put down a single cent for it back then!"

Looking at my son in front of me, I could have strangled him.

Twelve years ago, he and Hildegarde had fallen in love on their own.

When they were talking about marriage, Hildegarde's father was in a car accident and died on the spot.

Crying, Hildegarde said to me, "Ma'am, I don't want a bride gift, I just want you to help my family raise Robert!"

I agreed without a second thought, but raising a child is never that easy.

Robert was only thirteen at the time, just starting seventh grade, right when he was hitting his rebellious streak.

After Hildegarde married in, he moved in along with her.

Everyone in the family had a job—only I was retired, so the task of looking after Robert fell on me.

Dropping him off and picking him up morning and night, cooking nutritionist meals, and, worried he might feel like a burden, often sitting down to talk things through with him.

Through his three years of high school, I did it all myself, signing him up for tutoring classes based on how he was doing in school.

Over two hundred a session, and it went on for three full years.

Later Robert got into college, and Walter and I paid his tuition and living expenses too.

That money had long since passed whatever bride gift was owed to Hildegarde, to say nothing of all the years I'd given for free.

I'd finally had a few years' rest, and now they wanted me to make up the bride gift again.

Her scheming was so blatant it was about to jump right off the abacus into my face.

"I'm not asking for much, just three hundred thousand. This money's for Robert to get married, and after that I promise I won't ask for another cent!" Hildegarde said, like she was negotiating with me.

But she'd said the very same thing twelve years ago, and I didn't dare believe her anymore.

"That's right, Mom, three hundred thousand isn't that much. Your and Dad's pensions should cover it."

"You shut your mouth!" I glared hard at Lucas.

I turned to Hildegarde and sighed. "Hildegarde, you didn't take a bride gift back then, that's true, but I bought you a diamond ring set, a car and a home paid in full, and every one of your brother's expenses came out of our pockets!"

"Do the math yourself—how much does all that add up to?"

Hildegarde's eyes dodged away and she turned her head, not looking at me. "Mom, those are two separate things! Don't go mixing them together!"

A chill welled up in me, and I decided I wouldn't bring up the demolition for now.

"And what if I just don't make up this bride gift?" I said.