What came instead was Diane, Eric’s mother, slowly expanding her presence in the home from a guest who needed a little time to get back on her feet, into someone who treated Lena’s income like a personal resource she had full access to.
She took over the kitchen and complained about the way Lena cookedEzoic
She made herself comfortable in every room of a house that was not hers.
She acted, consistently and without apology, as though Lena’s paycheck was something she had a rightful claim to simply because she had married into the family.And then, on an ordinary Tuesday evening, the situation reached a point from which there was no returning.
Lena came home that night the way she always did, exhausted after a long day, dropping her bag by the front door and hoping for a quiet evening.Diane was sitting at the breakfast bar in a silk robe, her hand wrapped around one of Lena’s mugs, not bothering to look up when the door opened.
She didn’t say hello. She didn’t ask how the day went.She said, “I need another five thousand dollars by Friday.”
Lena thought for a moment she had misheard.
“Another five thousand for what?” she asked.
Diane’s eyes narrowed in a way that made clear she had expected resistance and had already decided it was not acceptable.“Don’t play dumb,” she said. “I saw the bonus deposit hit your account.”
