Behind her, Robert balanced a suitcase in each hand.
‘Where should I put these?’
‘Back in your car would be best,’ I said.
Patricia laughed as though I had made a joke.
‘Oh, Dorothy.
We drove six hours.’
‘Without asking whether you could stay here.’
Her smile disappeared.
‘Emily invited us.’
‘Emily does not own this house.’
The porch went quiet.
Daniel appeared behind me.
‘Mom, let them come inside for a minute.’
I unlatched the chain, but I did not step away from the doorway until Patricia handed me the key.
She stared at my open palm.
‘Emily gave it to me.’
‘I know.’
Her cheeks reddened.
Finally, she dropped it into my hand.
Robert carried the suitcases into the hall.
Patricia swept past me with the casserole, visibly offended.
She stopped when she saw the cruise ticket and blue folder on the kitchen table.
Emily rushed toward her.
‘Mom, this is not a good time.’
Patricia ignored her.
‘What is going on?’
Daniel picked up the screenshot.
‘Did you know Emily told everyone this was our house?’
Patricia looked at her daughter.
That brief hesitation answered him.
‘She said Dorothy was thinking about downsizing,’ Patricia replied.
‘I have never said that,’ I told her.
Patricia placed the casserole on my counter with unnecessary force.
‘Well, perhaps not in those exact words.
But this is a large house for one woman.’
There it was.
Not concern.
Not confusion.
Entitlement.
My husband and I had purchased the house thirty-one years earlier.
We raised Daniel there.
I cared for my husband there through the illness that took him.
After his death, I refinanced nothing, borrowed nothing, and paid every tax bill myself.
Yet Patricia looked around my kitchen as though my home were an unused asset waiting for younger people to claim it.
Daniel’s voice dropped.
‘Mom is not moving.’
Emily crossed her arms.
‘Nobody said she had to move immediately.’
Immediately.
The word landed harder than any denial.
Daniel stared at his wife.
‘So you have talked about her moving.’
Emily closed her eyes for a second.
‘We’ve talked about the future.
That’s what married couples do.’
