CHAPTER ELEVEN
MELINDA
I needed to be more careful. I needed to think like Belinda instead of like myself. But I did not know how to think like someone who had never worried about money or struggled to make ends meet or spent Saturday nights alone with a book instead of at parties.
I returned to the bedroom. Maria had finished with the linens and was straightening the items on my dresser. She picked up a framed photo I had not noticed before. Belinda and Kieran at their engagement party. My sister looked radiant in a gold dress, her arm linked through his, her smile brilliant and confident.
"Such a beautiful photo," Maria said softly. "You both look so happy."
I stared at the image of my sister with the man I was now married to. They looked like they belonged together in a way I neve
