“She was lying.”
“What if she wasn’t?” His voice cracked. “What if I really wasn’t enough?”
Margaret crossed the room and took his face in her hands. “You are enough. You have always been enough. And the fact that she made you believe otherwise is exactly why I did what I did.”
He closed his eyes. Tears slipped down his cheeks.
“I’m so tired, Ma.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know what to do now.”
“You breathe. You let yourself feel this. And then you start over.”
He pulled away and sank into one of the dining chairs, his head in his hands. Margaret sat down beside him and placed her hand on his back.
They sat like that for a long time.
The chandelier above them cast soft shadows across the ruined dinner. The house settled into quiet.
Finally, Timothy spoke. “What happens now?”
“Now the district attorney reviews the evidence. If they decide to prosecute, there will be a trial. If they don’t, Lisa will still have to answer for what she did.”
“And us?”
Margaret hesitated. “That depends on you.”
He looked up at her. His eyes were red and swollen. “I don’t know if I can forgive you for this.”
The words hurt. Margaret felt them settle deep in her chest. But she nodded. “I know.”
“You took the choice away from me.”
“You weren’t making a choice, Timothy. You were avoiding one. And it was going to destroy you.”
He stared at the table. “Maybe.”
Margaret stood slowly. She picked up her purse and the gold pendant around her neck caught the light.
“I’ll go,” she said quietly.
Timothy didn’t stop her.
She walked to the front door, pulled it open, and stepped out into the cool night air.
Behind her, the house was silent.
Three days later, Margaret sat in her small kitchen with a cup of tea and the morning paper.
The story had made the local news. Not the front page, but page four. “Local Woman Arrested for Embezzlement.” The article was short. Factual. It didn’t mention Margaret’s name.
Her phone had rung six times that morning. She hadn’t answered.
She knew who it was.
The seventh time it rang, she picked up.
