Джули Салливан - Friends and Strangers

After their father walked out, neither of them spoke to him for three years. Not until he had a mild heart attack and their mother convinced them he was dying.

To this day, they refused to accept his financial help. Money was power, and their father would have none over them.

Charlotte now lived in a condo on the beach in Turks and Caicos. She taught yoga three days a week at a five-star resort. And she had her Instagram account—she was fond of reminding Elisabeth that she was a verified user, with seventy-five thousand followers.

“There’s no way she lives off that,” Andrew had said, many times. “It’s impossible. Your dad must be sending her money.”

“I know for sure that he isn’t,” Elisabeth said, though she did not elaborate.

For a long time, Charlotte was supported by her fiancé, Matthew, a finance guy who, like their father, made all his money in shady real estate deals. Three years ago, she called off the wedding. She moved to Turks and Caicos, got on Instagram.

“How many bikinis does she have ?” Andrew said at the time.

In every picture, Charlotte wore a different bathing suit. She paired the photos with some inspirational nonsense she had written about dreams and destiny and manifesting her truth.

But clearly, Charlotte knew what she was doing. Whenever they spoke to her, she told them about the skin-care companies and high-end sandal brands that sent her free samples, which she promoted in kind. A boutique hotel chain with properties all over the Caribbean sponsored her stays, putting her up in lavish rooms, where she posed half naked in the window, gazing at the ocean through sheer, flowing curtains.

Still, as Andrew often pointed out, it remained unclear how Charlotte paid her bills. Until the day she called Elisabeth in tears and said, “Don’t hate me, but I’ve got to call Daddy. I’m broke. Not just broke, actually. I’m majorly in debt.”

“How much debt?” Elisabeth said.

“Two fifty.”

“Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars?”

“Getting my business off the ground wasn’t cheap, okay? The camera, the clothes, the flights, the blowouts. But it’s all about to pay off. Soon I’m going to make twice as much as I owe in one lump sum.”

Elisabeth had never heard her sister refer to what she did as a business before.

“How?” she asked.

“I wasn’t going to tell anyone until it was official,” Charlotte said. “But I’m negotiating a huge sponsorship deal with Enthusium.”

“What’s that?” Elisabeth said.

“Diet pills.”

“You’re taking diet pills?”

“God no. They’re for desperate fat people. I’m like the aspirational after photo.”

“But you’ll have to say you’re taking them.”

“Sure. My point is I need the money sooner than the deal is going to go through. I figured what’s the harm in asking Daddy for it. It wouldn’t even count as taking his money. It would just be a loan. Once I get this sponsorship, I can pay him right back.”

“Don’t do that,” Elisabeth said. “You’ll figure it out. If you’re this far in debt, what’s the harm in waiting another month or two to pay off your credit card bill?”

“It might be longer than a month or two. Amex is sending debt collectors to my door. It’s bad. I could lose everything. Gossip travels fast on a small island. Can you imagine what that would do to my brand?”

“Your brand?”

“I need this weight off my shoulders,” Charlotte said. “I’ve made my decision. I thought I should give you a heads-up before I call him.”

Elisabeth’s heart pounded. She had gone to great lengths to ensure that her father had no control over her. That was for her own sake. But her need for Charlotte to do the same, Elisabeth knew—that was about punishing him. She didn’t want to give it up.

“Let me loan you the money,” she said.

Charlotte sniffled. “Really?”

Elisabeth wired the full amount to her the next day, already doubting the decision.

The savings account had had just over three hundred thousand in it—whenever she thought of that, Elisabeth had felt a sense of safety and pride that she had done it on her own. She handed almost all of it over to her sister.

To stay calm, she reminded herself that it was a loan. But two years had passed. The sponsorship deal had yet to happen. Every time Elisabeth asked her about it, Charlotte said they were working out the final details.

In her darkest moments, Elisabeth scoured every comment on her sister’s social media accounts to try and find some clue that revealed how soon the money was coming.

Meanwhile, Charlotte borrowed even more. Small amounts, mostly, but they added up. Car payments, rent checks. A three-hundred-dollar restaurant bill when some jerk ran out on her without paying after they’d had a fight.

When she agreed to lend her the money, Elisabeth had no idea that Andrew was about to quit his job. His salary had paid for their living expenses, for IVF, and co-op fees. For everything, really. When they first got together, she sold her single-girl apartment and they bought their place in Brooklyn, which turned out to be a great investment. They were able to buy the new house outright with what they sold it for.

But being a person was expensive. Neither of them was earning much of anything at the moment. Elisabeth was stressed about money in a way she hadn’t been since she started refusing her father’s. The savings account dipped closer to zero with every dinner out, every grocery order, the sort of expenses she never would have thought twice about when Andrew was in his old job.

He had no idea what their life cost. No clue what she had spent over the years on linens and rugs and furniture and dishes, all the details that added up to an appealing home.

They were accustomed to living a certain way. She couldn’t give up the organic berries, the cage-free omega-3 eggs, the good coffee, the cruelty-free dish soap that was three times the price of Dawn. Even if she could give them up, if she made drastic changes, Andrew might suspect.

Elisabeth hadn’t bought anything nice for herself in ages. When her high-end skin-care products from Bloomingdale’s ran out, she replaced them with creams and serums from CVS. She didn’t think they worked nearly as well, but it was possible that was in her head. She had an unworn Theory dress hanging on a clothing rack in the laundry room with the tags still on. She was saving it in case of emergency, should she need something new she could no longer afford.

She told her sister they were low on cash. But she added that Charlotte should keep coming to her if she really needed to. Charlotte kept coming.

Elisabeth still hadn’t told Andrew about the loan. He thought they had a nest egg to pull from, to keep them safe. She justified this in the following manner: until he asked outright and she had to answer, she had not lied. There was time to fix it.

It was too late now to tell him the truth. He had quit his job, taken a huge risk, believing they had a cushion. He would be terrified, furious, if he knew.

Elisabeth had betrayed him to help her sister. Her sister, who on the day Gil was born had posted to Instagram a photo of herself on the beach at sunset, naked, in child’s pose.

Balasana…the breath of new life. Today a child came into this world, made of the same stuff as me—the energy extends, the wisdom renews. Did my infancy ever cease? I am my own baby, soft and amazed. I vow to nurture and care for myself, a precious soul meeting the universe, yet again.

“Is she trying to make it seem like she had a baby?” Elisabeth had demanded at the time.

“Is she actually wearing no clothes?” Andrew said.

It was another six hours before Charlotte bothered to text them and say congrats.