Chapter 10
Mom took the shopping bag and set it on the table.
“Would you like some water?”
Doreen declined without looking at her.
“I've come to help you get this family back on track.”
I was sitting in the armchair beside Lucy. Getting up still took effort, so I stayed where I was.
Doreen stood over me until Mom brought another chair.
“Sit down,” Mom said.
She did.
“Garrett is beside himself.”
I waited.
“He cried when he told me what happened.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That you threw him out of the delivery room. In front of doctors. In front of nurses.”
I looked at her carefully.
“Did he tell you why?”
“Of course. I'm not defending the messages.”
She paused.
“But you embarrassed him in front of strangers.”
Mom's hands stopped moving on the folded baby clothes.
“He embarrassed himself. My daughter was busy giving birth.”
Doreen's mouth tightened.
“This is a conversation between Audrey and me.”
“In my house,” Mom said. “While I'm helping her recover.”
I told Mom I wanted her to stay.
Doreen looked back at me.
“You have a baby now. You can't act only on your feelings.”
I could hear Lucy breathing in the bassinet.
“What should I act on?”
“What's best for your daughter.”
“Keeping our savings for her care would have been a good place to start.”
“He told me about that. It's complicated.”
“It was twenty-eight thousand six hundred dollars.”
Doreen shifted the folder onto her lap.
“Garrett has always tried to take care of everyone.”
The sentence made me feel suddenly cold.
“Who is everyone?”
She reached toward the bassinet.
“Let me hold her.”
“She's sleeping.”
“I am her grandmother.”
“Yes.”
“I've been waiting all week to meet her.”
“You can sit here with us. But I need you to stop pressuring me.”
She stared as though I had spoken a foreign language.
“Forgiveness is part of being a mother, Audrey.”
“Then Lucy will need to see me forgive myself for trusting someone who lied. She won't need to see me pretend it didn't happen.”
Doreen sat back.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then she opened the folder.
“Garrett thought we should make a practical arrangement while you stay here.”
There were several pages, clipped neatly together.
PROPOSED MARITAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT.
Below that was a schedule of assets and debts.
My name appeared beside a line marked advance distribution received.