“I know that now.”
Outside, Lauren knocked hard enough to rattle the glass.
Dad’s breathing scraped against the receiver.
“She told your mother you’d been pretending it was an inheritance because you didn’t want Ethan knowing you needed help. This morning she said we had to leave the house before the buyers came.”
“Buyers?”
“I’m coming. Don’t sign anything.”
The call ended.
I opened the door as far as the security chain allowed.
Cold air touched the cheek I had scrubbed twice the night before.
Mom stared through the gap at me. Her lipstick was uneven. She had buttoned her coat wrong.
Lauren lifted a large envelope.
“We have a family problem. We need to discuss it inside.”
“No.”
Her expression tightened.
“Emily, don’t make a scene in front of the neighbors.”
“Then stop pulling on my door.”
Her hand fell away from the handle.
Mom looked at it, then at Lauren.
“You said she was expecting us.”
“She is. She’s just doing this because of last night.”
I looked at my mother.
“Did you think you were coming here to live?”
For a moment, the only sound was a car moving slowly through the slush.
“Lauren said you’d offered the downstairs room.”
“We don’t have a downstairs bedroom.”
Mom’s mouth opened slightly.
Lauren pushed the envelope into the gap.
“Can we please be practical?”
I didn’t take it.
She pulled out a sheet instead. At the bottom, beneath paragraphs I couldn’t read, was a signature that looked enough like mine to make my stomach contract.
Above it were the words ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF PERSONAL LOAN.
“I never signed that.”
“You don’t remember half of what you sign.”
Mom reached for the paper.
Lauren moved it away.
That small movement changed something in my mother’s face.
“Let me see it.”
“It’s a copy, Mom. It doesn’t matter.”
“Then let me see it.”
From the kitchen came the clink of a bowl and Lily asking whether rabbits liked pancakes. I held on to that sound.
“Put the papers on the bench,” I said. “Step away from the door.”
Lauren laughed once.
“You always needed instructions for everything.”
“Put them down.”
Mom took the envelope from her.
Lauren lunged for it, catching the sleeve of Mom’s coat. Mom jerked backward and struck the suitcase with her heel.
I closed the door.
My hands were shaking so badly I missed the deadbolt on the first try.
Ethan came into the hallway.
“Do you want me to call someone?”
“Yes. I think we need the police.”
Saying it made the morning real.
He glanced toward the kitchen.
“I’ll take Lily next door first. Mrs. Bell’s home.”
We had exchanged cookies with our neighbor three days earlier. I knew almost nothing about her except that she had grandchildren and had told us to knock if we ever needed anything.
Now I needed that offer.
Before Ethan left through the back, Lily caught my wrist.
“Is Grandma still mad?”
I crouched beside her.
“Grandma doesn’t get to come inside and be unkind to us.”
