Chapter 5 - The Moving TrucksMy mother woke up the next morning to three moving trucks in her driveway and a courier delivering a formal notice she read standing in her bathrobe on the front steps, according to the housekeeper who called me in a panic an hour later.
She called me eleven times before noon. I let every single call go to voicemail. Around one o'clock, she switched tactics and called Simone's mother instead, apparently hoping to enlist an ally, which backfired spectacularly, since Simone's mother had been the one who drove three hours the night before to bring us blankets, formula, and a level of fury on her daughter's behalf that made the moving trucks look gentle by comparison.
By the time my mother finally reached me, late that afternoon, her voice had shifted from outrage to something closer to panic.
"You can't do this. This is my home. I have lived in that house for thirty-one years."
"You have lifetime use of it," I said. "Which I'm legally entitled to end under the terms of the trust, given what happened last night."
"I opened a window! For five minutes! I was airing out the nursery because it smelled like—"
"Theo's lips were blue, Mother. His hands were ice. You locked Simone out of the room so she couldn't check on him, and you told her she was hysterical for trying." I kept my voice level, the same flat, quiet tone I'd used with her in the foyer the night before. "I've spent thirty-two years making excuses for the way you treat the people I love. I'm done. You have ninety days under the courtesy clause, which frankly is ninety more than I think you've earned, and I'd suggest you spend them finding somewhere else to live, because I am not reversing this."
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"Where am I supposed to go?" Her voice had a genuine crack in it now, the first honest emotion I think I'd heard from her in years. "That's my house."
"It was never your house," I said. "It was always mine. Dad made sure of that a long time ago. You just never bothered to read the fine print, because you never imagined I'd actually use it against you."
