“You never liked that the condo was mine,” I said.
“I never said that.”
“You didn’t need to.”
Michael faced her.
“Is that true?”
Linda sighed.
“I worried about you.”
“Why?”
“Because I know what happens when someone has no security.”
The room changed. Michael’s expression softened slightly. Linda glanced at the windows.
“When your father died, everything was in his name.”
Michael said nothing. His father, Robert, had died suddenly when Michael was seventeen. Linda discovered afterward that the family finances were far more fragile than she knew. Their house had two mortgages. There were unpaid business debts. Within a year, she sold the house and moved into a smaller rental. Michael worked throughout college partly because Linda could contribute very little. I had always understood that history as the reason Michael hated debt.
I never considered what it had done to Linda.
“I thought we were secure. Your father handled everything. He always said not to worry.”
