For much of her married life, Selena Verano lived with a quiet, unspoken ache. Her husband, Ramon, earned a generous income as a senior engineer in Manila. Yet every morning, without fail, he placed a single one-hundred-peso bill on the kitchen table before leaving for work.
“For the day,” he would say in a soft, steady voice.
At first, Selena thought it was a budgeting habit, something temporary or even humorous. But days turned into months, and months into five long years. While others around her enjoyed comfortable lives, she tried to stretch that small bill into meals, errands, and dignity. She felt hidden away, as though she lived behind an invisible curtain.
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