“We thought you needed space.”
“You sent me an engagement invitation.”
“That was Melissa trying to include you.”
“Did you think I needed inclusion at my husband’s funeral?”
Her face tightened.
“We made a mistake.”
“A mistake is writing the wrong date on a calendar.”
She looked down.
“We didn’t understand how bad it was.”
“They were dead.”
“I know.”
“You understood enough.”
She lifted the casserole as though food could negotiate.
“Can we please talk inside?”
“No.”
Then she said the sentence that told me why she had come.
“Your father is concerned you’re making major financial decisions while
grieving.”
I almost laughed.
There it was.
Not How are you surviving?
Not Tell me about the children.
Money.
PART 6 — MY FATHER’S CONCERN
Dad called from another number after I blocked his first.
“You embarrassed your mother.”
“She came to my house uninvited.”
“She is trying to repair this.”
