Then only on birthdays. Eventually, the calls stopped.
I told myself I did not care.
Ezra never challenged that lie directly.
One afternoon, after I spent twenty minutes complaining about a customer who had broken a promise, Ezra said, “You are angrier than the situation requires.”
“The man owes me three thousand dollars.”
“I understand.”
“Then why shouldn’t I be angry?”
“You should. But some of that anger belongs to someone else.”
I knew exactly who he meant.
“My father has nothing to do with this.”
Ezra took a slow