The day I became a director should have been one of the happiest days of my life, but my husband ruined it with a mocking smile.

For a second, everything felt unreal.

His mother, Gloria Collins, was sixty-four, sharp-tongued and dramatic, and had spent the last decade treating me like a temporary employee in her son’s life. His younger sister, Melanie, was thirty-four, unemployed, constantly in some self-created crisis, and had already “temporarily” stayed with two cousins, an aunt, and one ex-boyfriend before wearing out her welcome. Derek had mentioned they were “going through a rough time,” but he had never once asked if they could move in.

He had already decided.

And apparently, decided my role too.

I set the champagne on the counter. “You already told them yes?”