“Psychotic is an interesting word, Garrick,” I said, looking directly into his eyes. “Your wife deliberately ruined my birthday cake in front of my guests. A cake my sister baked from our mother’s recipe. My hand slipped when I picked up her purse. Clumsiness isn’t a crime, is it? Isn’t that what you two always tell me when things go missing or break around here?”
Garrick’s jaw tightened. A vein pulsed along his temple. “Stop playing games, Mom! You didn’t slip! You stood there, looked her dead in the eye, and dropped it into the fire! Sabrina cried herself to sleep. That bag was a limited edition. You owe her twenty-five hundred dollars. I checked your account balance yesterday—you can easily afford it.”
My heart skipped a beat, but my face remained carved from stone. *He checked my balance yesterday.* Which meant he knew exactly how much was left. He knew there was barely eleven hundred dollars remaining in that checking account, and he was pushing me to write a check that would bounce—creating yet another record of financial mismanagement.
“If you say so, Garrick,” I said softly, letting my voice waver just enough to sound fragile, exhausted, defeated. “I… I don’t know what came over me. Maybe I am just tired. Julian’s absence… it weighs on me.”
Garrick’s posture softened, but not with sympathy. It was the predatory relaxation of a hunter seeing an animal stumble into a snare.
“Look, Mom,” he said, his voice dropping into that nauseatingly patronizing tone he had adopted over the last few months. “Sabrina and I know it’s hard. We know you’re struggling to keep track of things. That’s why we’re here. But you have to work with us. You can’t be acting out violently. If you can’t manage your emotions, people are going to start asking questions we can’t protect you from.”
“You’re right,” I murmured, looking down at my hands. “I should apologize to Sabrina when she wakes up. In fact, maybe I’ll go into town this morning and pick up her favorite pastries from the French bakery. To show good faith.”
Garrick smiled—a small, smug curl of his lips. “That would be a start. Take the sedan. Don’t drive too fast. Your reflexes haven’t looked great lately.”
