“Get security,” she ordered.
The coordinator glanced at Caleb.
He shook his head.
“Nobody is removing my mother.”
Sabrina’s eyes widened.
“You cannot be serious.”
Caleb took one step toward her.
“You told me she wanted to sell the house. You told me she had already spoken with your father and that she was planning to move closer to us.”
“She did!”
I shook my head.
“No, Caleb. I told Sabrina I wanted to stay in the home where you grew up.”
His expression changed again, but this time I recognized what I saw.
He was remembering something.
Three weeks earlier, he had visited me with brochures for a retirement community. He had sat at my kitchen table, gently explaining that I deserved to relax, travel, and stop maintaining so much property.
I had told him I wasn’t ready.
He had looked disappointed.
Now I understood why.
He hadn’t been trying to take my home.
He believed I had already decided to leave it.
Sabrina had been speaking for both of us, carefully telling each one what the other supposedly wanted.
Caleb turned back to her.
“You said Mom asked you to find those apartments.”
Sabrina swallowed.
“She was considering her options.”
“You said she didn’t want to upset me by discussing it directly.”
“Caleb, please.”
“And you told her I thought she should leave?”
I closed my eyes.
There it was.
The lie that had been growing between us for months.
