After losing my 16-year-old daughter Emma in a tragic car accident, my world shattered. She was bright, passionate about the environment, and had just chosen UC Davis for college.

Her father, Tom, and I had saved $25,000 for her education, and after her funeral, we decided to donate it to environmental causes she loved — a way to honor the future she never got to live.

Then my stepdaughter Amber appeared. At 30, she had barely been civil to me since I married her father, Frank. She came uninvited, muttered a flat “I’m sorry,” and then asked, “What are you doing with Emma’s college fund?” When I told her it was being donated, she scoffed. “That’s so stupid. You could give it to me. We’re family.”