“I am here because I was hired,” I said.
“My hours are documented.
My wages are deposited into my account.
I have also signed the agency’s standard refusal of personal gifts from clients.”
Bradley blinked.
“You signed away gifts?”
His disappointment was so naked that even he seemed to hear it.
Thomas’s expression hardened.
“I am fully competent,” he said.
“Eleanor has behaved with more integrity in six weeks than many people manage in a lifetime.”
“You don’t know her,” Bradley replied.
“I know she was ordered out of her son’s house three weeks after burying her husband.”
Bradley turned toward me.
“You told him?”
“I told him the truth.”
He pointed toward the door.
“Come outside.
We need to discuss this privately.”
“No.”
The word surprised both of us.
Bradley lowered his hand.
“What did you say?”
“I said no.
You do not get to remove me from a house where I am welcome after removing me from the one where I was not.”
His face reddened.
“I am still your son.”
“And I am still your mother.
That did not make me your property.”
For several seconds, he seemed to search for the version of me who would apologize for upsetting him.
She was no longer there.
Bradley closed the folder.
“When this goes badly, do not expect me to fix it.”
He walked out and slammed the door.
The sound echoed through the hall.
Thomas looked at me carefully.
“Are you all right?”
“No,” I said.
“But I will be.”
That answer was enough.
By May, Thomas no longer required daily care.
His doctor cleared him to walk with a cane, provided he stopped treating the stairs like a personal challenge.
Our professional arrangement had to end.
On my final day, Thomas paid the agency invoice and handed me a small envelope.
I did not take it.
“What is that?”
“A letter,” he said.
“Not money.”
I opened it while he waited.
Eleanor,
I will not ask you to replace Charles.
I will not ask you to repair fifty lost years.
But when you are no longer my caregiver, I would like to take you to dinner.
If the answer is no, I will remain grateful that you opened my door.
I folded the note.
“The answer is not no,” I said.
Thomas smiled.
