Chapter 2
I didn’t move for three whole seconds.
My brain couldn’t process what my eyes were seeing.
This was my mother.
The woman who’d bandaged my scraped knees as a kid.
The woman who’d cried at my wedding.
The same woman who now stood over my injured wife like a monster in a dress.
Then Ava whimpered.
The sound broke the spell.
I ran across the room, dropping to my knees beside her.
I ignored Margaret completely.
She didn’t exist to me in that moment.
“Ava,” I said, my voice cracking.
I brushed the hair off her face, my hands shaking so bad I could barely touch her.
“Baby, look at me. Are you hurt? Where does it hurt?”
She turned her eyes to me.
They were wide, wet, terrified.
Like she still couldn’t believe I was really there.
Like she’d thought no one would ever come.
“I’m okay,” she lied.
Her voice was thick with tears.
“Just… just scared.”
I looked at the bruise on her cheek.
At the way she was holding her left side, her ribs probably bruised from the fall.
At the pills scattered inches from her hand.
She was not okay.
She was far from okay.
Behind me, Margaret finally found her voice.
“Darling, it’s not what you think,” she said.
Her tone was sickly sweet, the same one she used when she’d broken something and blamed it on the dog as a kid.
“Ava fell. I was just trying to help her. Lena attacked me, I had to defend myself—”
I stood up slowly.
I turned to face her.
I didn’t yell.
I didn’t scream.
I think that scared her more than if I had.
“Shut up,” I said.
My voice was low, steady, dead.
“Not another word. Not one more lie out of your mouth.”
Her eyes widened.
I’d never spoken to her like that in my life.
I’d always been the good son.
The one who nodded, who agreed, who let her walk all over me because she was family.
Not anymore.
I stepped over the pills, over the broken glass.
I walked to the desk and picked up the top paper.
A quitclaim deed.
Signing over our entire house—our home, the one we’d saved five years to buy—into Margaret’s name.
Below it, a durable power of attorney.
Giving her full control over every cent Ava and I owned.
Every medical decision.
Every part of our lives.
My hands crumpled the paper.
I looked at her.
“You were going to steal everything from us,” I said.
It wasn’t a question.
“You were going to drug my wife and make her sign away her life.”
Tears sprang to her eyes.
Fake ones.
I could tell.
They didn’t reach her cold, dead eyes.
“I was doing it for you!” she cried.
“She’s a burden! She can’t work, she can’t even walk—you’re wasting your life taking care of her! I was going to make sure you were taken care of, that you had the money to start over—”
“Get out,” I said.
I pointed to the door.
My hand didn’t shake anymore.
“Get your things and get out of my house. Now.”
She stared at me, shocked.
“You can’t do this,” she said.
Her voice dropped, turned nasty.
“I’m your mother! You owe me! After everything I did for you—”
“I owe you nothing,” I said.
“Not after this. Not after what you did to Ava. If you’re not out in five minutes, I’m calling the police. I’ll have you arrested for assault, for attempted fraud, for whatever else I can think of. Do you understand me?”
For a second, I thought she’d fight.
I thought she’d scream, throw things, make a scene.
Then she saw the look on my face.
She knew I meant every word.
She spun on her heel and stormed out of the study.
I heard her footsteps thud up the stairs, drawers slamming open and shut.
I didn’t care.
I turned back to Ava.
Lena was already on her feet, leaning down to help Ava sit up.
Her cheek was swollen twice its size, a bright purple bruise already forming along her jawline.
“I’m so sorry, sir,” she said, her voice trembling.
“I tried to stop her sooner, I was just outside—”
“Hey,” I said, cutting her off.
I reached out and touched her unhurt shoulder gently.
“You have nothing to be sorry for. You saved her. If you hadn’t come in when you did… I don’t even want to think about it. Thank you, Lena. Truly.”
She nodded, fresh tears spilling over.
I helped Ava into a sitting position, leaning her against my chest.
She wrapped her arms around my waist, her body shaking against me.
“I was so scared,” she whispered into my shirt.
“She’s been coming every day when you’re at work. For weeks. Pressuring me, yelling… I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to have to choose between us. I thought if I just held out long enough, she’d stop.”
My heart shattered into a million pieces.
Weeks.
This had been going on for weeks.
And I’d had no idea.
I’d kissed her goodbye every morning, gone to work, come home, and never noticed the new bruises, the way she flinched when the doorbell rang, the way she’d stopped eating as much.
I’d failed her.
“I’m here now,” I said, kissing the top of her head.
My voice broke.
“I’m so sorry I wasn’t here before. I’m never letting her near you again. Never. I promise you, baby. You’re safe now.”
Upstairs, a suitcase slammed shut.
Margaret’s footsteps came back down the stairs.
She walked past the study door, not even looking in.
The front door opened and closed with a final, loud click.
She was gone.
For now.
But I knew this wasn’t over.
May you like
My mother never gave up that easily.
And I was going to have to fight harder than I ever had to keep the woman I loved safe.
