Before dawn I swapped out the lock cylinder on the master bedroom. Of all the spare keys that used to be floating around, the only one left was in my pocket.
Rachel hadn’t slept. She sat on the edge of the bed, staring down the hall toward the back room. “I’m setting the rules. One — she doesn’t come into the main house. Two — she is never alone with Maya. Three — she never says the word ‘baby brother’ again.”
“What’s rule four?”
“I’ll be the one holding that one.”
She didn’t spell it out. I knew why she couldn’t. Donna had nowhere else to go in this country. Calling the cops was pointless. Kicking her out tonight wasn’t real. However much Rachel hated her, she wasn’t going to make Maya watch her grandmother get dragged out the front door.
I went to the back room to deliver the rules. The door was still cracked open.
“Donna. I’ve got three rules for you.”
Her voice came through the gap, unhurried. “Let’s hear them.”
I laid out all three. A long silence. Then she said, “Maya gets nightmares in the middle of the night. She comes to me. She’s afraid of the dark. I’m her grandmother — you expect me to listen to her cry and do nothing?”
“She has me. She has Rachel. She doesn’t need you waiting up for her.”
“Then you’d better keep her safe.”
She didn’t argue. There was no heat in it at all. It was the tone of someone who already knows you’re going to lose, and is letting you make the first move.
At one a.m., Maya cried.
Comment GO ON and I’ll drop the update ASAP!
I caught my MIL piercing our condoms with a needle, saying: “You’re going to give me a grandson whether you like it or not.” Donna didn’t put the needle away.
