My stepmother laughed and said to me, “You’re not from this family,” so I raised my glass and replied, “Then don’t ever ask me for money again”… and at that moment my father discovered the lie that had been hidden from him for years.

“All right,” I said. “Then don’t ask me for another peso.”

My father frowned. “What money?”

Nobody answered.

I pulled out my phone, opened my banking app, and turned it toward him. “The money I’ve been sending Veronica every month. For this house. For your treatment. For Mauricio’s problems. But that ends now.”

The color drained from Veronica’s face.