It was easy to spout values like “chesed starts at home” when you didn’t have a distressed woman in the hospital begging you to come help her.

The ten-piece band was playing soft dinner music as the guests milled around the smorgasbord; Eliezer had informed Dini that both Shwekey and Shapiro would be singing later, with a few other big names making an appearance as well.

Dini had nodded, accepting the information as casually as it had been imparted, just like she took it as a matter of course that her sister-in-law had scoured southern New Jersey to find the ritziest wedding hall for her son’s bar mitzvah. It was a mindset that, growing up, had been as natural to her as breathing. The fact that she found it jarring now made her realize just how far she’d removed herself from her family by making her home across the world.

Still, she’d been convinced that this was a good thing. So why was she feeling so inadequate right now? Ma motioned for her to come over. She was speaking to a lady wearing the thickest diamond necklace Dini had ever seen.

Her mother took her hand. “Adele, this is my daughter, Dini Blumenfeld. You must know my mechutanim, Blumenfeld from the nursing home chain. Dini, you remember Adele.”

Dini blinked. Adele? Ma, I need more clues than that.

“Of course,” she said, smiling graciously and detaching her hand from her mother’s grasp to hold it out to Adele. “So nice to see you again.”

The older lady pressed it. “Lovely to see you, Dini. It’s been years. You look so much like your mother.”

Dini glanced sideways at Ma, who beamed. Yes, she had her mother’s good looks. Growing up, that had been the running narrative in their family; of the two Reiner daughters, Dini had inherited Ma’s beauty, while Eliana got Tatty’s brains.

Each sister felt the other had gotten the better deal.

As if reading her mind, the unknown Adele continued. “Of course, I see your sister often, at the yearly Chanukah party and annual weekend. Such a sharp girl, Eliana. Heshy tells me that since she took over the corporate division, profits have tripled!”

Oh. This was Adele Samson, the wife of the CFO of Tatty’s real estate firm. Of course she would know Eliana, and all of Dini’s brothers as well.  They were all involved in the business.

All the Reiners were. Except her.