PART 1
“Your mother is used to serving, so let her finish preparing the food before she sits down.”
Those were the first words that struck me when I stepped inside my house, three full hours earlier than anyone expected me home.
My early flight from Santa Aurelia had just touched down in Redstone City, bringing me back from a massive corporate deal. I was buzzing with excitement because my mother, Evelyn, had made the long journey from Pinehaven just to spend precious time with my four-year-old son, Noah. Before landing, I explicitly reminded my husband, Derek, to give her a warm welcome and make sure she relaxed, especially since her severe arthritis had been having her intense knee pain for weeks.
I pushed open the front door, expecting to find her resting comfortably in a quiet room.
Instead, the living room air conditioning was blasting at a freezing sixty degrees while my mother-in-law, Marjorie, reclined lazily on the sofa and ate fresh grapes. Derek sat beside her, absorbed in his tablet, a half-empty beer on the side table, ignoring the mountain of dirty dishes and clothes scattered across the floor. Then Noah’s cry cut sharply through the house from the kitchen.
