Chapter 7 - Diane’s First Reaction Was Not Remorse
Diane did not rush back toward Leo.
She did not apologize.
She did not ask whether he was hurt.
She stared at Elena and said:
“You can’t do that.”
Elena sat on the floor with Leo in her arms.
Maya was still crying beside the playpen.
Her injured leg throbbed so badly she could feel her heartbeat inside the brace.
Yet for the first time since the crash, Elena felt completely steady.
“It’s already being done.”
“That house is mine.”
“No. It isn’t.”
Diane laughed nervously.
“I have lived there for seven years.”
“Yes.”
“I paid for improvements.”
“A few.”
“Your husband told me—”
“Michael didn’t own it.”
Diane stopped.
Elena watched the information rearrange itself across her mother’s face.
“What are you talking about?”
“The house belongs to Morgan Residential LLC.”
“Michael’s company?”
“Mine.”
Silence.
Diane’s grip tightened around the pickleball paddle.
“You’re lying.”
Elena almost smiled.
“No.”
Then Diane made the mistake that confirmed everything Elena needed to know about their relationship.
She did not say:
I’m sorry I kicked Leo.
She said:
“After everything I’ve done for you, you’re going to make me homeless?”
Elena looked down at the crying child in her arms.
Then back up.
“After everything you’ve done for me?”
Diane realized too late how obscene the sentence sounded.
She changed tactics.
“You’re drugged up. You’re grieving. Daniel is taking advantage of you.”
Elena’s expression hardened.
There it was.
The old pattern.
If Elena disagreed, somebody else must be controlling her.
Michael.
Daniel.
Stress.
Medication.
Never Elena herself.
Diane had spent so many years treating her daughter’s support as natural that the instant Elena withdrew it, autonomy itself looked like betrayal.
“Leave,” Elena said.
Diane stared.
“Now.”
“You need me.”
Elena looked toward the open doorway where the nanny, summoned by text, was already rushing down the hallway toward Maya.
“No,” Elena said.
“That was your biggest mistake.”
Diane left.
The paddle went with her.
The entitlement did not.
May you like
Not yet.
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