The youngest man spoke softly. “If she hadn’t taken us in that winter, we’d be dead.”
Gerald’s contempt shifted into greed.
“Well, then,” he said. “Martha’s my wife. What you give her, you give this household.”
Tommy looked at him for a long second.
“Then perhaps we should discuss the law,” he said.
Gerald’s smile slipped.
Tommy added, “Especially the part concerning a husband who has been collecting relief money in his wife’s name for seven years.”
Chapter 3: What Kindness Cost Her
Gerald went pale.
Martha looked from him to Tommy, struggling to understand what she had just heard.
“Relief money?” she repeated.
Gerald forced a laugh. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
Tommy’s voice remained calm. “The county widow’s relief. The coal ration subsidy. The church emergency fund. Veterans’ housing vouchers under false declaration. Shall I go on?”
Martha stared at Gerald. “Widow’s relief?”
He snapped, “It was paperwork. Means nothing.”
But Martha was already remembering. The church women who looked at her with pity. The landlord who strangely delayed eviction notices. The food vouchers that were always “lost in transit.” The half-burned letter she once found in the stove with her name on it.