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“Sorry, sorry. I shouldn’t joke.” He gave a weak smile. “I’m thinking you told Charlie the good news?”

“She did,” Charlie said.

“Well, okay then.” He jutted his chin toward the coffee table, and the women followed him. “Come on. Movie night needs to start.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

MACK’S DRINK SPECIAL: BUSTED BROWN SUGAR BREVE

“Mack.” Her mom pounded on the door and charged into the room.

Mack’s neck cracked when she whipped her head up. “Jesus, Ma! Privacy much?”

Yikes.Mack straightened. Stiff from a full writing day, she slowly adjusted her spine and closed her laptop. She couldn’t decode her mom’s invasive glare and heavy breaths. Her mom wasn’t pissed. But she wasn’t happy, either. More… stern. Somber. She had flashbacks of when her mom told Mack she was sick.

Mack’s stomach coiled, and she swallowed. “Is Dad okay?”

“Yes.” Her mom pulled a chair beside the bed. In a significant shift from her normal MO, she looked at a loss for words as her mouth opened and closed multiple times with nothing coming out. “We’re changing insurance in November, so I wanted to review the plan we were on a few years ago during the chemo and stuff.”

“Okay…”

“So, I started digging. And I found some old files.”

Shit.

The chair squeaked on the floor as her mom crossed and uncrossed her legs. “And I kept digging. ’Cause you know me… a dog with a bone.” She took a breath and exhaled. “Some things didn’t add up.Literally didn’t add up. The high deductible. Claims. Multiple capped items.”

Her mom rested her elbows on her knees and stared into Mack’s eyes. They burned so hard that Mack turned away as her neck grew hot and itchy.

“Tell me what you did.”

Mack tugged on a thread on the comforter. They were never supposed to find out about this. Her parents were the proudest people she knew. They’d be mortified, not think of this as a gift. She kept her eyes on the thread to avoid her mom’s gaze. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Mack.” Her mom leaned forward. “Mackenzie.”

Mack’s head flew up at the blunt tone. She held her shoulders firm for a second before they collapsed. “I paid for it.”

“Jesus Christ.” Her mom dragged her hands down her face. “That was almost?—”

“I know how much it was.”

Her mom stood up, and paced in a circle, biting her thumbnail. “How did… how did you even get that kind of money?”

Mack clamped the inside of her quivering lip before she spoke. “The advance for my second book.”

Her mom’s chin dropped to her chest.

Was she mad? What happened now? Theycouldn’ttell her dad. He’d be mortified, then humiliated, then very, very angry. His purpose in life was to take care of “his girls.”

Mack was on the verge of throwing up. The thick yet near-silent tension in the room was worse than any fight or screaming match she and her mother had in the past.

The evening sun poured through the cracked blinds. Her mom opened the blinds fully and stared outside. She stood in silence as her shoulderslifted and lowered with deep inhales. “Why did you come here?”

Huh?“What do you mean?”

Her mom faced her and crossed her arms. “Mack. Stop, please. Right now. No more lies.”

Mack rested her chin on the pillow. “I had writer’s block.”