“Taking advantage of me?” She laughed without humor. “Tessa has been kinder to me than you ever have.”
I wanted to remind her of every time I had driven across town to help with appointments, every meal I had prepared when she was unwell, every family gathering where I had swallowed an insult rather than embarrass Roy.
Instead, I said, “Please be careful around her until we understand what’s happening.”
“I’ll decide who I trust.”
She hung up.
I stood in the dark kitchen, staring at my phone.
I had called to protect her.
Somehow, I had become the enemy.
The next morning, at 7:18, my phone rang.
It was Tessa.
“What did you do?”
Her voice was trembling with anger.
I sat upright in bed.
“What are you talking about?”
“Margaret called me. She told me to stay away from her. She said she might stop helping me.”
Helping her?
