Let's not feel ashamed of career breaks. If the organisation is more concerned with your break than your skill set, I'd say it's a bullet dodged !
Breaks are important for you to feel rejuvenated or to even align with your next steps. Talk about how the break has helped you and what value it adds to your life.
A good employer will always value your honesty and self awareness there. Unless and until we as an ecosystem and as professionals remove the taboo and fear of career breaks in our own minds, the mindset of those at the hiring chain will also not change.
And money is a function of what you bring to the table, and your experience. If they make it all about the gap and the money, it's better to run away than towards them. These kind of orgs will never value you as a human or professional, and will simply look at you as a number in their excel sheets