“They’re my sisters.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means okay.”
Publicidad
I hung up.
***
Thirty seconds later, Lena’s phone rang.
She declined it.
“What does that mean?”
Then she typed one message.
“Please come down.”
Mom appeared seven minutes later.
She still had the little cloth bag in her hand.
The car key showed between her fingers.
She still had the little cloth bag in her hand.
She looked at Lena.
Then Phoebe.
Then me.
“You had no right to drag them into this.”
I almost admired the sentence.
“Why did you take Grandma’s money?”
“You had no right to drag them into this.”
Mom glanced toward the office doors.
“Not here.”
“Nobody is listening.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Then let’s walk.”
We moved toward the far end of the parking lot.
Mom stopped beside her car.
“Nobody is listening.”
I looked at the hood, then at the little cloth bag still clenched in her hand.
“It wasn’t like that,” she said.
“What was it like?”
“Your grandmother always favored you.”
Lena frowned. “Mom.”
“Stay out of it.”
“Your grandmother always favored you.”
“You told us Grandma left you money.”
Mom’s eyes flashed.
“I said she wanted all of you taken care of.”
“No,” Lena said. “You said she left you money.”
Mom looked at me.
“Margot lived with her.”
“You told us Grandma left you money.”
There it was.
“You had Grandma,” she said. “My girls didn’t.”
Phoebe looked at her.
“Your girls?”
