“I’m old, Brett. I’m not blind. It looks to me like you’ve thrown my favorite granddaughter-in-law out on her ear so you can shack up with whatever this is. Did I get that wrong?”
— Walter, in the driveway
✦ ✦ ✦
Brett tried to explain twice and got cut off both times — the second time permanently.
“And who exactly gave you the right to decide she doesn’t belong here,” Walter said, glancing at me with something gentler in his face before turning back to his grandson with nothing gentle at all.
“This house is mine. I let you live in it because you were starting a family. If you’re going to treat your wife like she’s disposable, you can consider yourself uninvited from this family. Effective immediately.”
— Walter, to his grandson
Brett’s face went the color of paper. “Grandpa — what are you saying?”
“I’m saying Erin stays and you go. And as of this moment, every dollar of support you’ve gotten from this family stops. You think you can humiliate your wife for some twenty-five-year-old and a sports car phase and it won’t cost you anything? Not on my watch.”
Brett said his grandfather’s name one more time, like a question, like it might still work the way it always had.
