I didn’t know she had specifically told you to move rooms.”
Alicia scoffed.
“What difference does it make? Mom has the whole house.”
Mom.
She called me Mom now that there was a lawyer in the room.
Mr.
Harris noticed it too.
I saw his eyes flick toward me, but he said nothing.
I continued.
“Did you know your wife told her mother I was easy to manage?”
Fernando froze.
Alicia’s expression changed.
“What are you talking about?”
“I heard you in the hallway.
You said if I became uncomfortable here, I could go to a nursing home because this house was worth too much to waste on me.”
Her mother looked down.
That small movement told Fernando more than any argument could have.
He turned toward Alicia.
“You said that?”
“She listens to private conversations now?”
“Did you say it?”
“I was frustrated.”
“Did you say it?”
Alicia threw up her hands.
“Fine.
Maybe I said something like that.
Your mother has been making everything difficult since we got married.”
I almost laughed.
I remembered the pastries she used to bring me.
The hugs in front of Fernando.
The sweetness that disappeared a little at a time once she understood I would tolerate almost anything to keep my son close.
Mr.
Harris placed another packet on the table.
This one made Fernando stop speaking.
“What’s that?” he asked.
I answered him myself.
“The papers asking you and Alicia to leave my house.”
Alicia stared at me.
For several seconds she looked genuinely unable to understand the sentence.
Then she laughed.
“You can’t evict your own son.”
Mr.
Harris leaned forward.
“Mrs.
Bennett is not changing locks today, throwing belongings onto the street, or bypassing legal procedure.
I have prepared the formal notices required to begin the process.
Any further steps will be handled lawfully.”
Fernando sank into the chair opposite me.
“You want me gone?”
His voice hurt more than Alicia’s anger ever had.
I had imagined this moment all night.
I had expected to feel powerful.
Instead, I felt like his mother.
“I wanted you here,” I said.
“That is why you were invited.
You told me you needed a few months.
