“But where your blood,” David shouted, desperate.
“Blood means nothing if the heart is rotten.”
Catherine stepped forward then with that fake smile she reserved for special occasions.
“Margaret, let’s be practical. You need us more than you think. Who’s going to take care of you when you get sick? Who’s going to manage the farm business?”
“I will take care of myself as I have for 73 years. And as for the farm business, I have some news for you.”
I went back to the porch and took from my purse the papers I had signed that morning with Mr. Davies.
“Yesterday, I signed a new will. Everything I have will go to a foundation that helps abused women. Not a single scent, not an inch of land will be for you.”
The silence that followed was different from all the others. It was a silence of defeat, of destroyed plans, of dreams of easy money evaporating like dew in the morning.
David sat on the step again, but this time not like a child seeking forgiveness. He sat like a man who finally understood the consequences of his actions.
“Mom, you can’t do that. I’m your only son.”
“Being my only son gave you rights, David, but it also gave you obligations, and you chose to betray me instead of taking care of me.”
Amber had stopped crying. Now she was looking at me with a pure rage that finally showed her true face.
“You’re crazy. Completely crazy. David, do something.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know, but you can’t let her take everything from us.”
“No one is taking anything from you,” I said calmly. “You are simply losing something that was never yours.”
The sun had set completely. The first stars were beginning to appear in the violet sky. It was time for them to leave.
“Go,” I told them. “This house is no longer your home.”
David looked at me as if he hadn’t understood the words, as if it were impossible that his mother, the woman who had cleaned his scraped knees and prepared his favorite meals for 40 years, was telling him to leave.
“Mom, you can’t be serious.”
“I have never been more serious in my life.”
Amber approached then with the desperation of a cornered animal that made her look ugly despite all her makeup.
“Mother-in-law, think carefully. Without us, you have no one. What are you going to do when you get sick? When you need help?”
“I’m going to do the same thing I’ve always done. Solve my problems on my own.”
“But you’re 73 years old.”
“And you’re 35, but you act like you’re five. Age is no excuse for being useless.”
Amber.
Catherine had already gotten into the car, probably calculating that this battle was lost.
But she shouted from the window.
“Margaret, this isn’t over. We have legal rights. The papers you signed give us power.”
“Those papers?” I took the folder I had taken to the lawyer out of my purse. “Are you referring to these papers that have already been nullified? or these other ones where it’s proven that you pressured me to sign without legal representation.”
Her face fell even from a distance. I could see how reality hit her like a hammer.
“That’s impossible. Those documents are valid.”
“They were valid until Mr. Davies proved there was emotional coercion. It turns out the law protects senior citizens from abusive children. Who would have thought?”
David stood up abruptly, so fast that the step planks creaked.
“We are not abusive. Everything we did was for your own good.”
“For my own good, David, look around. Look at this farm I built with my own hands. Look at this house where I raised you. Do you really think I don’t know what’s good for me?”
