Then Lily spoke.
“Mom wanted to come home.”
Marlene stepped forward.
“That is enough.”
I moved between them.
“No. It isn’t.”
Lily wiped her face.
“Grandma told her she couldn’t.”
“When?”
“At the hospital.”
Marlene laughed.
Actually laughed.
“She wasn’t even there.”
Lily’s eyes widened.
I turned toward Marlene.
“You just said she misunderstood a private conversation.”
Marlene’s face changed.
She realized it too late.
I looked back at Lily.
“Were you at the hospital?”
She nodded.
“Grandma picked me up from Aunt Rachel’s house.”
I hadn’t known that either.
Claire and I had arranged for Lily to spend the morning with my sister Rachel because I had yard work to finish and Claire had her appointment.
Rachel had texted me shortly before noon.
Marlene grabbed Lily. Said Claire asked for her.
At the time, it had seemed normal.
Now nothing did.
“What happened at the hospital?”
Lily squeezed her knees tighter.
“Grandma told me not to tell.”
“She can’t stop you now.”
Lily looked toward the purse.
“She gave Mom something.”
The room seemed to shrink around me.
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“A pill?”
She nodded.
Marlene stepped forward again.
“That was prescribed medication.”
I held up the paper.
“Then why hide this?”
“I didn’t hide anything.”
“It was folded inside your purse.”
“That’s where I keep paperwork.”
“Then why were you pinning Lily to the floor?”
“I already told you—”
“No.”
My voice came out louder than I intended.
Lily flinched.
I immediately lowered it.
“No more explanations from you.”
I dialed Claire.
It rang.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
No answer.
I called again.
Nothing.
Then I called my mother-in-law’s house phone.
We heard a ringtone.
Not through the phone.
Inside the room.
All three of us looked toward the purse.
Marlene’s face went white.
I reached inside.
Under a zippered compartment, I found another phone.
Claire’s phone.
My wife’s phone was inside her mother’s purse.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
I held it up.
“Explain this.”
Marlene stared at me.
“She asked me to hold it.”
“Why?”
“She was tired.”
“You brought her phone here?”
“She didn’t need it.”
“You left my wife asleep at your house without her phone?”
“She needed peace.”
I walked toward Lily.
“Put your shoes on.”
Marlene blocked the doorway.
“Where are you going?”
“To get Claire.”
