“Mom, you’ve been making some very strange decisions lately. We think you need permanent care.”
I couldn’t understand what she meant.
“Are you saying you want to put me in a nursing home?”
“Not an ordinary nursing home. It’s a comfortable facility where they’ll take care of everything for you.”
Jake, who had remained silent until then, suddenly asked,
“And what’s going to happen to the house?”
Sarah answered coldly.
“That’s none of your business.”
“Then whose business is it? Margaret’s or yours?”
My daughter turned toward me.
“Mom, see? He wants to get his hands on our family’s property!”
I looked at Jake.
He didn’t try to defend himself.
Instead, he asked everyone to sit down in the living room.
Sarah refused.
That’s when Jake spoke a name.
“Linda Wilson.”
Sarah dropped her purse.
I remembered that name very well.
Linda had worked in our home for fifteen years. She was a quiet, shy woman who had practically become part of our family.
Then one day, she disappeared.
My husband told me she had moved to another state.
I believed him.
“What does Linda have to do with any of this?” I asked.
Jake sat down across from me.
“Margaret, I’m about to tell you something you should have heard eight years ago.”
He told me that Linda was his mother.
I froze.
Linda had never told me she had a son.
Jake explained that his mother had worked for our family for years to pay for his education and medical expenses. But after something happened inside our home, she was forced to leave her job.
I suddenly remembered an evening.
My husband, Robert, had gotten into a terrible argument with our son, David.
Afterward, Linda came out of the kitchen crying.
