Author: Nam Nguyen Hong

PART 1: The Bill Next to the Deviled Eggs At 6:14 on Labor Day evening, my father slid a stapled invoice across the kitchen table. I had a paper plate of my mother’s deviled eggs balanced on my belly. “Thirty days, Corinne,” he said. “Then Darryl files.” The total at the bottom was $212,460.00. It was itemized. Groceries. Braces. My childhood bedroom, billed as rent. Even my prom dress. My parents had decided that raising me had been a loan. And the loan was due, because my little brother was about to lose his house. I was thirty-four weeks pregnant.…