“So if Mommy never got poor, she never would have met Daddy?”
The room goes quiet when she says that.
Because children have a way of reducing complicated lives to simple truths.
Christopher always answers carefully.
“No.”
Then he looks at me.
“But your mother would have found another way.”
Maybe he believes that.
Maybe I do too.
What I know for certain is this.
Money did not save us.
Not really.
Truth did.
Courage did.
Ryan surviving did.
Christopher choosing to stop protecting a family legacy built on fear did.
And one exhausted mother refusing to quit did.
Sometimes I still wear the old coat I had that first winter.
Christopher hates it.
“You own twelve better coats.”
“I like this one.”
“It has a hole in the pocket.”
