One Favored, One Forgotten

Summary

I’d been married to Neil for three years without ever asking him for a single favor. The only time I did was this summer, right after my brother Toby graduated high school. I asked Neil to arrange a simple internship for him at his firm.

He didn’t look up from his laptop. “Tell him to report to the front desk.”

Toby took a seventeen-hour overnight bus from our rural hometown, wearing his only crisp white shirt, and sat in the lobby all afternoon. By early evening, a company chat notification popped up: Who’s the country bumpkin at the front desk? His collar’s literally yellowing. Dead.