The Fake Broke Challenge Committee

For three years, Maisie Stratford has worked three jobs, eaten near-expired canned food and picked up leftover vegetables at the market, all because her husband Sam Cassidy is broke. He is gentle and considerate, and she has taken care of him financially, giving up a promotion and her savings for his medical bills after a car accident, and even agreeing to an abortion when he said their baby would only suffer.

Then she accidentally bumps into his phone and sees a chat group called The Fake Broke Challenge Committee. Its shared rules award points for every sacrifice she makes, and Sam leads the board with 470 points. The members mock her as obedient and a lapdog, and Sam agrees, saying she loves and trusts him too much to be cured. They also discuss Edie, whose birthday is in two weeks, and joke that Sam will eventually find a reason to divorce Maisie.

Maisie puts the phone back, her milk gone cold, and looks at her pale, thin reflection, wondering how much of her life was ever real.