Chapter 1 - “She Raised Me”
Margaret was already sitting on the living-room floor when Daniel came through the front door.
She looked terrified.
At seventy-six, she had become smaller than Daniel remembered from childhood. Silver hair framed a pale face wet with tears. Her pale-pink cardigan was twisted at one shoulder, and one cream trouser leg had folded beneath her knee.
Claire stood several feet away.
A lightweight frying pan was raised in her hand.
Daniel barely had time to understand what he was seeing.
Claire hurled it.
Not directly into Margaret’s body.
Toward the floor immediately in front of her.
Daniel lunged across the room and knocked it sideways with his forearm.
CLANG.
The pan spun across the hardwood and stopped beneath the coffee table.
Claire stared at Margaret.
“Next time, I won’t miss, you old parasite.”
Daniel moved between them instantly.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Claire rolled her eyes.
“She’s being dramatic.”
Daniel dropped to one knee beside Margaret.
“Margaret… has she done this before?”
Margaret’s mouth trembled.
She looked at Claire.
Then slowly nodded.
Daniel stopped breathing for a second.
Claire scoffed.
“Oh, please.”
Daniel looked back at her.
Claire stepped closer and pointed down at Margaret.
“She’s not your mother. She’s just a burden you refuse to dump.”
Daniel slowly stood.
Something cold entered his expression.
Margaret remained behind him.
“She raised me when nobody else did.”
Claire smirked.
“Then take her somewhere else. I’m done living with her.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Claire tried to move around him.
He blocked her.
“Stay back.”
She reached past his shoulder toward Margaret.
Daniel knocked her hand away.
Margaret recoiled.
“Move,” Claire snapped. “I’ll throw her out myself.”
Daniel stared at his wife.
Claire stepped toward Margaret again.
That was the final trigger.
Daniel turned and struck Claire once across the cheek with an open hand.
The sound cracked through the room.
Claire lost her balance and dropped onto the soft carpet.
Daniel immediately stepped backward.
No second strike.
He placed himself in front of Margaret again.
“She raised me. You’re the one who doesn’t belong here.”
Claire looked up at him.
Her cruelty disappeared.
For the first time that evening, she looked frightened.
May you like
And Daniel had no idea yet that the argument had begun because Margaret had refused to sign away the one legal right standing between Claire and more than four hundred thousand dollars of equity in the house.
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