“What did you do for my wife?”
“She was sick!”
“Yes.”
“She couldn’t work!”
“Yes.”
“She became a burden on everyone!”
The room went silent.
Selina realized too late that she had stopped pretending.
I nodded toward the laptop.
“Say it again.”
My mother looked at Phedra.
For the first time, shame appeared on her face.
Only briefly.
Then anger swallowed it.
“You left her with us.”
“I left my wife with my family.”
“You sent money to me.”
“To care for her.”
“You never said every cent belonged to Phedra.”
“No. I expected you to understand she deserved food.”
Selina pushed back from the table.
“You would choose her over your own mother?”
I looked at the woman on the screen. My wife had lost her hair, much of her strength, nearly a year of treatment and almost every possession of value she owned.
“There should never have been a choice.”
