My sister turned back.
“I don’t care if you’re sorry right now.”
He looked surprised.
She held one hand over the fresh dressing.
“I don’t want you watching me again.”
Nobody spoke.
Then she added, “And I don’t want you texting Mom about what I supposedly think before I get to talk.”
Mom nodded once.
“That’s reasonable.”
My brother stared at her. “You’re actually taking her side on this?”
Mom said, “I’m taking her seriously.”
He stood so fast the chair scraped against the floor.
“You know what? Fine. Don’t ask me to help anymore.”
Mom’s answer came immediately.
“I won’t.”
That seemed to hit him harder than everything else.
He had spent the entire afternoon defending himself as the responsible one, the person Mom trusted, the person whose version should count first because he was helping.
Now Mom had removed the role completely.
He opened his mouth, then closed it.
Mom continued. “While she’s recovering, you are not responsible for her medication, her dressing, getting her food, driving her anywhere, or being alone with her because I need someone watching her. If you are here, you are her brother. Nothing more.”
He looked toward my sister.
She was crying now, but silently.
He looked back at Mom.
“So I’m some kind of monster?”
Mom shook her head.
“I didn’t say that. I said I’m not putting her care in your hands after what happened today.”
He grabbed his keys from the counter.
“Unbelievable.”
Mom did not stop him when he said he was going out for the evening. She only told him not to come back angry and restart the argument.
He left through the front door.
The house became strangely quiet after that.
My sister sat on the couch. I brought her water. Mom checked the new dressing without touching it and wrote down the clinic’s instructions so nobody had to rely on memory later.
Then she sat beside my sister.
“I’m sorry I put you in that position,” Mom said.
My sister stared at the floor.
“You didn’t know he’d do that.”
“No. But I did expect you to depend on him, and after today I’m changing that.”
My sister nodded.
Mom did not ask her to forgive him. She did not make her promise that everything would be normal tomorrow. She just asked what would make the next few days easier.
