“Mom never receives any money, Daddy, and we don’t live in the house anymore.”
Victor rose to his feet, his legs heavy as stone as he looked down at the small, fragile child in front of him.
“Don’t tell me that, baby, because I send it every month so you can live like royalty,” he insisted, clinging to the breaking edges of his denial.
Annie hugged the tray of bread closer to her chest, lowering her eyes as she spoke the words that would haunt him forever.
“Grandma Maris kicked us out of our home while you were away on that business trip to the coast,” she murmured.
“Mom cried for weeks, and ever since then, we have been living in a tiny, rotted basement apartment in the slums of Northside.”
The muffled celebration inside the hotel suddenly seemed to belong to another lifetime, replaced by the deafening beat of Victor’s own heart.
“Did your grandmother really force you to leave?” Victor asked, his voice low and vibrating with dangerous intensity.
Annie nodded slowly as tears cut clean tracks through the dirt on her cheeks.
“She told Mom that she wasn’t good enough to be a part of our family anymore,” she recounted.
