Deloris didn’t have an answer for that.
She looked down at her own hands for a long moment, something I’d genuinely never seen her do before. Always so quick with a comeback, a deflection. A performance of hurt feelings designed to end any conversation on her terms. This time, the silence stretched long enough that even Caleb shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Waiting for a response that clearly wasn’t coming easily.
We sat in silence for a long moment, the folder still open on the table between us.
“What do you want?” Deloris finally asked, voice smaller than I’d ever heard it.
“I want my house back,” I said. “Fully. Legally. With your name off that deed.”
I said it plainly, without theatrics. The same steady tone I’d use to ask for anything else that simply needed to happen. There was nothing left to negotiate about, not really. And I think some part of her understood that even before I finished the sentence.
“And if I refuse?” she asked.
“Then we’ll go through the courts,” Caleb said. “A partition action. If that’s what it takes. I don’t want that. I don’t think you want that either.”
He said it evenly, without threat. Simply laying out the reality the way Priya had laid it out for us weeks earlier. Deloris flinched slightly at the phrase “partition action,” the legal weight of it clearly landing harder than any of our earlier. Gentler attempts to reach her.
