Chapter 14 Summary: At the Shabbos table, Debbie tries to backhandedly bring up the topic of money to her mother-in-law. Ilana contemplates leaving her volunteer job at the library to work on her PhD and realizes she doesn’t want to. Her friend Leah suggests she has untreated PTSD.

“You’re going back?” Shani, who’d been sorting through her cosmetics at the dining room table, stood up, eyes wide. “But you were just at Grandma’s for an entire week! Don’t tell me you’re leaving me in charge again?”

Yaffa frowned. “It’s not like I’m going on vacation,” Yaffa said. “Grandma needs a lot of help right now.”

Shani had spent the entire Shabbos kvetching about how exhausted she was after running the household for the week. True, it was a hard job—but why couldn’t she be more gracious about it? More delighted in the opportunity to do her bit during the family’s time of need? More like…

“I don’t get it, isn’t that what Moriah stayed here to do?”

“Yeah, and you should see how thrilled Moriah is about it. She’s always begging me to give her more work!”

Yaffa knew that comparing siblings—or cousins—was the number one no-no of parenting, but, really, why couldn’t her daughter be just a tad more selfless? She was only two years younger than Moriah, but they seemed light years apart in maturity.

Shani glared. “So if Moriah loves helping so much, why don’t you let her, and you stay home? Do you know that I had to miss three different activities with my friends last week because I was stuck babysitting? Including that Mordechai Shapiro concert Thursday night?”

Yaffa paused. “Really? I didn’t realize. Why didn’t you ask Tzippy to babysit?”

Shani shrugged, and sat back down at the table. “She’d already made plans to go to the concert with her friends. I felt bad asking her to miss it; you know how crazy she is about him.”

Yaffa felt a sudden strong pang of guilt. “And Tatty?” she asked. “He couldn’t stay home?”

“Tatty has his chavrusas,” Shani said. She absently picked up a bottle of nail polish as she mumbled, “I didn’t want to be mevatel his Torah learning for this.”

Yaffa stared at her daughter. What a good girl. She felt tears pricking her eyes, as she resisted the urge to wrap her in a giant, mortifying hug. What kind of mother was she? Why had she been so quick to see the good points in her niece, and only the negatives ones in her own daughter?

Swallowing rapidly, Yaffa sat down next to Shani. “That’s beautiful, Shan. I’m so proud of you. I wish… you should’ve told me. I would have come home earlier on Thursday so you could go out.”

“I tried calling,” Shani muttered. “Remember? You picked up the phone and told me you were in an important meeting and would call me back. But you never did.”

Yaffa winced; in all of the emotional aftermath of their meeting with the accountant, she’d completely forgotten that Shani had called.

“I feel terrible,” she said. “My nerves have been so frazzled recently, I haven’t been myself.” She closed her eyes. How could she make it up to her?

“Is it because of the money?” Shani asked unexpectedly.

Yaffa’s eyes flew open. “Huh?”

Shani twirled the nail polish bottle between her fingers. “I, um, overheard you talking on the phone this morning to Aunt Ilana. Something about Grandma and Grandpa having a lot of money?”

Yaffa sucked in her breath. She and Ari had thought it better not to discuss this with the kids, and Ilana had agreed with the decision. But she hadn’t counted on the walls of her house having ears.

Now, she looked speculatively at Shani. After misjudging her so badly, maybe she owed it to her to make this gesture of confidence? To treat her like an adult?

“Yes,” she said slowly. “We just discovered that. For some reason, they’ve wanted to keep it a secret. But it turns out they’re quite wealthy.”

Shani gasped. “Actually rich?” she squeaked. “Grandma and Grandpa? OMG, that’s—that’s—” She clasped her hands together. “Wow! Wow, wow, wow!” She laughed. “Hey, maybe I can ask them to finance my makeup business!” Her arm swept across the cosmetics lining the table. “I really want to buy an awesome new line of makeup I heard about, and I was just sitting here wondering if it was worth it, and how I’d pay for it. But now…”

Yaffa held up her hand. “First of all, this is all in confidence, Shani; we aren’t telling any of the other kids.”

The way Shani’s eyes lit up and her shoulders straightened in pride convinced Yaffa that she’d made the right decision to tell her.

“Second, we aren’t saying a word about this to Grandma or Grandpa, either. For whatever reason, they never wanted us to know—” Her face darkened momentarily; the thought still hurt—“And we’re going to respect that.”

Shani was watching her closely. “You’re upset, aren’t you?”

Yaffa’s eyes widened. “Why do you say that?” she asked quickly.

“I could tell by your expression.” She started playing with an eyeliner. “Besides, it makes sense. Considering you and Tatty are always worried about money.”

Yaffa stood up. This was too much! “Shani, where in the world did you get that idea from?”

“Please, Ma, it’s not exactly a secret. All through our renovations, all you guys could talk about was how expensive it all was, how you totally don’t have the money, that it’s crazy how much debt you’re taking on.” She rolled her eyes. “You think I don’t hear things?”

Yaffa didn’t know whether to blush or laugh. She did both. “Shani, you’re something else.”

Shani grinned. She leaned her elbows on the table and said, conspiratorially, “Tell me the truth, Ma, is that why you’re going back to Grandma’s house? To figure out a way to get some money from them to pay off your debt?”

“No!” Yaffa cried, the more vehemently to deny what, deep down, had secretly crossed her mind.

“Kay,” she said. “Cause, if you were, y’know, I thought maybe you could put in a good word for me, too. Just saying.”

Ilana picked up the phone for the 10th time to call Danny, then put it back down. No, this was a conversation to have in person. But where was he? He should have been home from work 10 minutes ago. She gave another stir to the meat sauce, paced the length of the living room, threw out a dirty cup Matan had left on the table, and then jumped when she heard the car pull into the driveway. Finally!

Fifteen minutes later, they were sitting at the table eating dinner, and Ilana began. “You’ll never believe what I have to tell you.”

Danny raised an eyebrow. “Moriah met a boy in America and is getting engaged?”

Ilana swatted her hand. “Even crazier. Yaffa called me a little while ago. She and Ari had a meeting with my parents’ accountant on Thursday, and it turns out that my parents are mega rich! Their investments are worth $15 million!”

Danny’s fork stopped on its way to his mouth. He whistled.

Ilana laughed at his shock. “Who would’ve thought, right? Isn’t that exciting?”

“For them, certainly,” he said.

“And for us! I mean, we’ll be getting that money eventually, no? Not,” she added hurriedly, “that I want them to, you know, die, chalilah, but, well, as people get older, don’t they start bestowing gifts or legacies or whatever they’re called?”

“Fifteen million.” Danny shook his head. “Your parents have always been so simple. I never would’ve imagined.” His eyes twinkled, as he cocked his head to his side. He deepened his voice like a TV interviewer. “So, Mrs. Ilana Eisen, now that you’ve suddenly come into wealth, what long-cherished dreams are you going to fulfill?”

Dreams? Ilana’s eyes widened. Had new possibilities suddenly opened up? Did she have any dreams she was waiting to fulfill? That is, beyond—

Danny’s voice reverted to normal as his expression suddenly turned serious. “And if you have money to follow your real dreams, will you give up this whole anthropology business?”