I laughed before I could stop myself.
Barbara looked at me.
“Did you get all of her medicine?”
I shook my head.
“Not all of it.”
“And Eric refused?”
“Yes.”
Her mouth tightened.
She looked down at Chloe for a long time.
Then she said quietly, “I have spent years making that man’s life easier than it should have been.”
It sounded less like a statement to me and more like a realization she had finally said aloud.
Barbara stayed until Chloe fell asleep.
Before leaving, she put on her coat.
“I’ll be back in the morning.”
“Why?”
A small smile appeared.
“Because I have a plan.”
She arrived before sunrise.
She refused to explain during the drive.
Instead, she headed toward Eric’s neighborhood while most of the houses were still dark.
When she parked, she opened the trunk.
It was packed.
Baseball trophies. Childhood photographs. College boxes. Winter clothes. An old guitar. School keepsakes. Everything Eric had left at his mother’s house because he assumed she would store it forever.
