Then Patricia reached into her designer handbag and pulled out an envelope. “We’ve been waiting for this moment,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “We set up a trust fund when you two got married, hoping for this day. Four hundred and twenty thousand dollars.”

My hands shook as I took the envelope. The number didn’t seem real. Derek and I had been saving for a down payment, scraping together every penny while living in our cramped two-bedroom apartment.