I thought he was joking. “Why?”
He gave a small laugh I had heard my whole life—the one that meant he had already decided I was beneath him.
“I don’t want people knowing my sister is just a cleaner.”
For several seconds, all I could hear was my breathing.
Then my mother took the phone.
“Daniel is marrying into an important family, Claire. They own hotels. Politicians will be there. Investors. You showing up in some cheap dress and talking about mops and toilets would humiliate us.”
“I own a
