Franzi sent her a worried gaze. “You’re not in financial trouble, are you? I know you’re not getting any money for helping out Uncle Nobby, and the rent in Freiburg is not exactly cheap. If you need help, I can—”

“No,” Susanne said firmly. “I’ve got enough money saved to keep me afloat even if I didn’t work for the rest of the year, if that’s what I wanted.”

“Why are you thinking about money, then?”

“Because Paper Love needs a website with an integrated webstore, plus a newsletter and plenty of online ads to survive.”

Franzi nodded and started eating again. “That makes sense.”

“Yeah, but a professionally designed and developed webstore will cost about ten thousand euros.”

Franzi nearly choked on a bite of potato. “Ten thousand?” she gasped out and took a large gulp of wine. “Wow. And people think dental work is overpriced.”

“There are cheaper options, but we’d have to upgrade eventually, so in the long run, we would just be wasting even more money.” Susanne forced herself to continue eating as she remembered Anja pointing out that she ate too little whenever she was stressed.

“Yeah. It’s the same in my job. If you go for cheap fillings, you’ll only end up paying more later.”

“The problem is that Uncle Norbert doesn’t have that kind of money. His savings are just about depleted.” Susanne took her time chewing a forkful of salmon. “I’m thinking about lending him the money.”

Franzi froze with her wineglass in hand. “You…you want to lend him ten thousand euros?” Her voice came out in a squeak.

“I don’t know if want is the right word, but I don’t see any other way to save Paper Love.”

“It’s not that I want to talk you out of it. I’m all for helping him. It’s just that you always said you’d never, ever make the same mistake that Mama made with Papa when she gave him all her money and cosigned his loans.”

“I know what I said. But this is different.” She wasn’t sure that it really was. She had promised herself to keep work and her private life separate, to never go into business with family or friends, and to never lend large amounts of money to anyone. Now it felt as if she was doing all three of these things.

“I agree. And you know what makes it different?” Franzi asked and then continued without waiting for a reply. “Mama was alone back then. You aren’t. I want to give you half of the money you need for the webstore.”

Susanne vehemently shook her head. “No. I’m not taking a cent from you.”

“Why not? I’m his niece too. Why should you carry all the risk alone?”

“Because you just had to replace a…” The correct word failed her, so she made a drilling sound.