“She said I owed her for taking me in.”
Margaret’s face changed.
Claire continued.
“She said I would have ended up nowhere if she hadn’t saved me.”
“She used that word?”
“Yes.”
“Saved?”
“Yes.”
Margaret’s mouth tightened.
Claire gave a humorless smile.
“She liked reminding me what I cost.”
Daniel reached for his wife’s hand.
This time Claire let him.
Margaret looked down at the box.
“I want to see my case file.”
Claire stared at her.
“Can we?”
“Maybe.”
The next week, they began trying.
It was not simple.
The county had merged agencies twice since Claire’s childhood.
Some records were archived.
Some could only be released to Claire because they concerned her.
Some might have been destroyed under old retention schedules.
Claire made the requests herself.
Margaret did not take over.
That surprised Claire.
She had expected Margaret to become relentless.
Instead, she asked once what Claire wanted.
“The truth.”
Margaret nodded.
“Then you lead.”
It was the first boundary between them that felt like respect instead of distance.
The nursing-home conversation did not disappear.
Two days after the kitchen argument, Daniel returned to it.
This time he sat across from Margaret in the living room.
Claire was not there.
“Mama, I was wrong.”
Margaret looked at him.
“About what?”
