Part 7
I have made my wishes clear with Dr. Wexler and with my attorney. You can be angry. You cannot rewrite me.
June
Mara read it twice.
Then looked at Lena.
“She knew?”
Lena’s face had gone still.
“She told me once. A long time ago. I was drunk, and she was angry, and she said she didn’t want Mom deciding our futures from a binder.”
“What did she decide?”
Lena looked at the envelope.
“There’s another document.”
Mara found it beneath the letter.
It was a consent form from the fertility clinic. June had designated Lena as the sole decision-maker regarding the embryos if June died. Celia had no authority.
Mara’s chest tightened.
“Did Lena know this?”
“She knew some of it,” Lena said. “Not all of it. She thought Mom had the documents because Mom always has the documents.”
“But Celia kept this.”
“Yes.”
“And she let you think I used the embryos.”
Lena’s eyes filled.
“I don’t know what she let me think. I don’t know what I wanted to think.”
Mara folded the paper carefully.
“Why?”
Lena looked out the window.
Across the street, a man loaded bags of mulch into the back of a truck. The ordinary movement of it made the booth feel almost unreal.
“Because June was the person who knew how to argue with her,” Lena said. “After she died, I kept waiting for someone to tell me what to do. Mom did. And I listened because listening was easier than admitting I had no idea how to live without my sister.”
Mara felt anger rise, but it was different now. It had nowhere clean to go.
“You still pushed me.”
“I know.”
“You still let her use June to hurt me.”
“I know.”
“You still made me think you believed I had done something horrible.”
Lena’s face crumpled.
“I did believe it. Some days. Other days I didn’t. That’s the worst part.”
Mara looked at the letter in front of her.
“You don’t get forgiveness because you brought me paperwork.”
“I’m not asking for it.”
“Then why are you here?”
Lena met her eyes.
“Because Mom is planning something else.”
Mara’s stomach dropped.
“What?”
Lena pulled another page from the envelope.
It was a draft petition prepared by Celia’s attorneys.
Emergency guardianship.
Not for Mara’s child.
For Mara.
The language was clinical. It described Mara as emotionally unstable, financially dependent, and medically vulnerable. It claimed she had “demonstrated impaired judgment” by refusing support from the Whitmore family and making “unsubstantiated allegations of violence.”
Mara’s mouth went dry.
“She’s trying to say I can’t make decisions for myself.”
“She thinks if she gets temporary authority before the baby is born, she can control where you live and what medical decisions you make.”
“That’s insane.”
“It’s my mother.”
Mara looked at the documents again.
The petition had not been filed yet.
But it had been drafted.
There were notes in the margin.
Need supporting statement from spouse.
Mara looked up slowly.
“Did you sign anything?”
Lena’s hands twisted together on the table.
“No.”
Mara waited.
“No,” Lena said again. “Not that.”
“Not that?”
“I signed something weeks ago. A statement saying you were having mood swings. That you were isolating yourself. That you seemed paranoid.”
Mara stared at her.
The diner noise fell away.
Lena’s voice dropped.
“I thought it was for the trust. I thought she needed it because you were accusing her of things.”
“You signed a statement saying I was unstable.”
“I didn’t know she would use it for this.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“No.”
“You didn’t care enough to ask.”
Lena’s eyes closed.
“No.”
Mara stood too quickly.
Pain ran through her hip.
Ethan was beside her before she fell, steadying her elbow without grabbing too hard.
“Mara.”
She pulled away from him.
“I’m fine.”
She was not.
She walked out of the diner into cold afternoon air and stood beneath the awning while rainwater dripped from the metal edge above her.
Lena stayed inside.
For once, she did not follow.
Daria filed for a protective order the next day.
Not because Mara wanted to turn her life into court filings and hearing dates. Not because she enjoyed hearing strangers summarize the worst night of her life in careful legal language.
But because fear had become too expensive to carry alone.
The court granted a temporary order against Lena after reviewing the recording and Mara’s medical report. Celia was not included at first. There had been no physical contact from her, and legal systems liked clean lines. They liked dates and witnesses and exact language. They did not know what to do with a woman who stood on a staircase and made another woman feel trapped without ever touching her.
May you like
Celia responded through counsel.
She denied any plan to seek guardianship.
