Jessica set the notice on the kitchen table.
“Margaret, please sit down.”
I was already sitting.
She seemed to realize that and pulled out the chair opposite me.
Colin remained beside the counter, holding my letter.
“What does this company have against us?” Jessica asked.
“Nothing that I know of.”
“Then why are they ending our lease?”
I looked at her.
“You'll need to discuss the notice with the property company.”
She pressed her lips together.
“This is our home.”
“It has been your rental home.”
The distinction seemed to upset her more than anything else I had said.
Colin rubbed his forehead.
“Mom, you must know something.”
“I know you've received the notice.”
“That's not what I mean.”
He put the letter on the table.
“You've never mentioned having enough money to buy a house.”
I looked at my son.
For years, I had lived with him.
I had watched him grow from a boy who followed Arthur around the garage into a man with a family of his own.
I had never expected him to support me forever.
I had only hoped he would remember that I was his mother, not an extra pair of hands.
“I didn't discuss my finances with you,” I said.
“Why not?”
I took a breath.
“Because I wanted to make my own decisions.”
Jessica gave a short, disbelieving laugh.
“So you've been keeping things from us?”
I thought about the birthday cake.
The scratch card.
Her joke about a bus ticket.
I thought about the evening when she had said I was becoming difficult to live with.
I could have repeated every word.
Instead, I answered honestly.
“Yes.”
Neither of them seemed prepared for that.
Colin pulled his chair closer.
“Mom, we never meant for any of this to happen.”
“Which part?”
He looked down.
Jessica answered for him.
“We were trying to find a suitable place for you. Oakridge is very nice.”
“I remember the brochure.”
“We thought you would be comfortable there.”
“I might have been.”
She looked relieved for half a second.
Then I continued.
“But neither of you asked whether I wanted to leave.”
Jessica opened her mouth, then closed it.
Colin stared at the table.
I could see him remembering the dinner when he had told me about January first.
He had expected me to accept the date.
He had expected me to understand that Lucas wanted my bedroom.
He had expected me to make the arrangement easy for everyone.
And I had done exactly that.
I had smiled.
That was what I had always done.
“You said it sounded fine,” Colin said.
“It did sound fine.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“Because agreeing to leave your house doesn't mean I have to move into the place you chose for me.”
The words came out quietly.
I hadn't planned them.
But once they were spoken, I knew they were true.
Jessica folded her arms.
“We were only trying to help.”
“I believe you thought you were.”
She seemed surprised by my answer.
I wasn't trying to make her into a villain.
People could hurt you without thinking of themselves as cruel.
Sometimes that was what made the hurt so difficult to explain.
“I've spent years helping this family,” I continued. “I did it because I love you. I never expected payment for every meal or every load of laundry.”
Colin's eyes lifted.
“But I began to feel as though my place here depended on how useful I could be.”
He looked away again.
I wished he would deny it.
I wished he would tell me I had misunderstood.
Instead, he sat silently.
Jessica glanced toward the staircase.
“The children will be upset when they hear you're leaving.”
“I'll miss them.”
“You could have talked to us.”
I looked at her for a long moment.
“So could you.”
She didn't answer.
The kitchen became very quiet.
I thought about the first day I had moved in.
Colin had carried one of my boxes downstairs and promised I would never have to feel alone.
He had meant it then.
I believed he had.
But time had changed the shape of that promise.
Perhaps he had become accustomed to my presence.
Perhaps I had made it too easy for everyone to forget that I had given up a home of my own.
I couldn't know what he had been thinking.
I only knew what I had been feeling.
Colin finally asked, “Are you really leaving today?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you going?”
“Near Charleston. Helen lives fifteen minutes away.”
He blinked.
“You've arranged all of this already?”
“Yes.”
“Without telling us?”
I looked at him.
“You didn't tell me about Oakridge until you had already visited it.”
He fell silent.
That was the first moment when I saw him consider the situation from my side.
Not fully.
Not comfortably.
But enough to understand that the rules he had applied to me might not feel fair when they were applied to him.
I stood and carried my mug to the sink.
My hands were steady.
I rinsed the cup and placed it beside the blue one I had used the day before.
“I don't want a fight,” I said.
“Then what do you want?” Colin asked.
I dried my hands.
“A chance to live the rest of my life as my own person.”
I picked up my handbag.
The suitcase was waiting downstairs.
And this time, I wasn't leaving because somebody had asked me to go.
Click here to continue reading: PART 8: Before the Taxi Arrived, I Told My Son What I Had Learned About Love, Money, and the Home He Thought I Needed
My Family Laughed at My Birthday Gift, but I Saw Something Under the Silver Coating That Changed Everything
Part 7 of 20
