When Kaija unlocked her phone and slid it across the floor toward Antony earlier that morning, the screen had lit up with seventy-nine missed calls from Mom.
Not Mother.
Not Mama.
Just Mom.
Seventy-nine.
The notification sat there in enormous white numbers against the dark screen.
Kaija's eyes lingered on it for exactly one second.
No emotion crossed her face.
Then her thumb swiped the notification away like it was nothing more than a weather alert, and she handed the phone over to Antony without explanation.
But now that she was finally back inside her apartment, with the silence of the flat pressing around her and exhaustion slowly settling into her bones, the thought returned immediately.
'Right. It's that time already.'
The end of the month.
Salary day.
Responsibility day.
Her mother had made that arrangement crystal clear the moment Kaija left home for college.
"You're an adult now."
Which translated roughly into:
"You owe me financially now."
