His shoes scraped against the stone, and the laughter faltered. His older brother narrowed his eyes, his sister tilted her head in confusion, and his youngest child stared at him with polite uncertainty, as if trying to place a distant acquaintance. Someone whispered his name, and the air tightened.
“What happened to you?” his wife asked finally, her smile vanishing as she took in his appearance.
He swallowed, the words tasting bitter even as he forced them out. “I lost the company,” he said quietly. “Bad investments. Legal trouble. It’s gone.”
