What had Juanita Vesper earned in exchange for kicking a drug habit, for twenty-five years of sobriety, for decades of working in a small, hot restaurant kitchen? A free lunch hurriedly eaten in between customers. A small house on the outskirts of town that had been left to her by her blind mother. A car that ran but could stop any day. A solitary, almost reclusive life. No extravagant habits, no eating out, no trips to Europe. Did she even have health care? He had no idea. Carine was right. How did he bear it? How did he bear being the thoughtless, self-absorbed prick that he was? How had he
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