Chương 8
Janice added, “There was also a request for a tour and a short-term cognitive assessment. Nothing was scheduled.”
“Did Elise say my mother had agreed?” Daniel asked.
“She indicated the family was discussing options.”
Margaret spoke. “That was false.”
“I’m sorry,” Janice said. “I can note that you do not authorize further contact.”
“Yes.”
Daniel asked for written confirmation. Janice agreed to send it to Margaret’s email address.
After the call, Margaret sat very still.
“She gave them my medications.”
“Did she have access to the list?”
“It was on the refrigerator.”
“Did you tell her about the falls?”
“She saw one.”
“The others?”
Margaret’s gaze moved toward the window.
Daniel waited.
“She saw the bruises.”
He rubbed his eyes. “So the safety concerns were real.”
“The threat was real too.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Because you sound disappointed that she did not forge my signature.”
Daniel looked at her.
“That’s not fair.”
“No. It isn’t.”
She stood and carried her coffee to the sink.
The doorbell rang.
Through the front window, Daniel saw Elise on the porch wearing yesterday’s bridal makeup beneath dark glasses. Her hair had been taken down, but several pins remained near one ear. She wore a long gray coat over sweatpants. A garment bag lay across the back seat of a car parked at the curb.
A camera lens appeared from inside a vehicle farther down the block.
Daniel opened the door enough to step outside, then closed it behind him.
Elise removed her glasses.
Her eyes were swollen, though she was not crying.
“May I come in?”
“No.”
“I need clothes from the apartment.”
“Marcus can let you in.”
“I don’t need Marcus guarding me.”
“There are reporters outside.”
“There are reporters outside my father’s house, your apartment, my office, and apparently here.”
Daniel glanced toward the parked car.
Elise held out her phone. The screen showed hundreds of messages.
“My company put me on leave.”
“What did they say?”
“That clients are calling. One of our accounts is an elder-care network.”
The irony might have been funny in another life.
Daniel folded his arms against the morning cold.
“Did you submit anything to Lake Briar?”
“A preliminary questionnaire.”
“You said you researched an assessment.”
“That is research.”
“You gave them her medications.”
“To ask whether they could manage them.”
“You listed yourself as family.”
“I was going to be family in less than twenty-four hours.”
“She didn’t authorize it.”
“No.”
“Did you tell them she agreed?”
“I said we were discussing it.”
“You weren’t.”
“I was discussing it. Your mother refused to.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Elise looked toward the neighboring houses. A curtain moved in an upstairs window.
“I should not have contacted them without telling her. I should not have spoken to her the way I did. I know that.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
“You left a brochure on a counter.”
“I brought it up five times.”
“And when I said no?”
“You said later. You always say later when the answer makes you feel like a bad son.”
Daniel felt anger rise because the sentence was accurate and because accuracy did not excuse her.
“You don’t get to use my avoidance as permission.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
She looked at the front door.
“Is she listening?”
“Probably.”
“I want to apologize.”
“She doesn’t want to see you.”
“Does she not want to, or did you decide she shouldn’t?”
He stared at her.
Elise laughed weakly. “There it is.”
“What?”
“The part where we’re all the same.”
“Don’t.”
“You decide for her because you’re her son. My father decides for everyone because he pays. I decide because I can see the disaster coming and nobody moves.”
“You threatened her.”
“Yes.”
“You humiliated her.”
“Yes.”
“You planned to put her in a facility after the wedding.”
“I planned to insist that we get an assessment after the wedding.”
“Whether I agreed or not.”
“I said that because I was angry.”
“You said it to a frightened woman while holding her chair.”
Elise’s face tightened. “I held the chair because she stood up too fast.”
Daniel said nothing.
“She had been dizzy,” Elise continued. “She nearly fell. The video starts after I pushed the chair back under her.”
“Why didn’t you say that yesterday?”
“I did. Everyone decided I was reaching for the phone.”
“You were.”
“I wanted to stop the video.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew what my father would do.”
Daniel looked through the glass beside the door. He could see the shape of his mother standing in the hall.
Elise lowered her voice.
“I was cruel. I am not saying I wasn’t. But I did not drag her into that chair. I did not plan to kidnap her. Your mother told me she would rather die in her house than let you waste your life taking care of her. I told her that was selfish. She said marrying me was the first selfish thing you had ever done.”
Daniel looked toward the street.
“What did you say?”
“I said she would not be allowed to ruin it.”
Tessa had reported that line correctly.
Elise pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Her hand shook.
“I spent eight months watching you leave dinner because she could not find a breaker switch. I watched you miss a presentation because she drove to the wrong clinic and called you from a parking garage. I watched you pretend it wasn’t getting worse because admitting it would mean choosing something painful.”
“You could have helped without trying to take control.”
“I did help.”
“You also kept score.”
“Yes.”
The answer surprised him.
Elise looked down at the porch boards.
May you like
“I kept score every time you left me at a restaurant. Every time you took a call in the middle of the night. Every time you promised we would talk and then fell asleep. I hated myself for it, and then I hated her because that was easier.”
Daniel leaned against the door.
