“Your mother is gone. Tears won’t bring her back—so wipe your face, make dinner, and don’t look like a grieving child when my guests arrive.” That was what my husband said.

He slowly shook his head and looked at Mr. Harrison with a foolish, condescending gaze, as if the president had just told a bad joke. Mark took a small step forward, an incredibly presumptuous act, as if trying to place himself on the same level as Mr. Harrison. With a voice that tried to sound as indifferent as possible, Mark said that Mr. Harrison must be mistaken or misinformed. Mark explained confidently that his mother-in-law, Mrs. Eleanor Vance, was just an ordinary old woman who lived off her late father’s modest pension. Mark even added with a mocking tone that Mrs. Vance used to grow vegetables in the backyard, wore old clothes, and often asked him for more money for her expenses.