That shut her up. Her lips moved, but nothing came out. Her grip on Jake’s hand went loose.
I’d won that round. But she was already reaching for a different card.
Diane let go of Jake’s hand, but she aimed her words right at his face.
“You hear that, son? She called me by my name. She won’t even give me one ‘Mom.'”
I saw something shift in Jake’s eyes.
My heart went cold. Every inch of ground I’d just taken with my mouth — she took it all back in one sentence.
She was never really pressing on me. She was pressing on the ledger she’d spent thirty years writing in Jake’s head.
Diane stopped going back and forth with me. She pushed past me, walked to the stairs, grabbed the railing, and swept one hand across the whole house:
“Living room. Kitchen. All three rooms upstairs. The down payment was mine. If you weren’t his wife, not one light in this house would be on for you.”
