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"Don't you dare play stupid with me! You called on me? After everything I've done for you, this is how you repay me?"
I didn't know what was happening. My head spun, and my stomach dipped. I glanced at Raph, and he kept his eyes on the road.
"I didn't call anyone, Mom."
But then I realized. Her doctor. Had he contacted someone? It had only been a few days.
"I didn't have a chance to call anyone, but then, this morning, some people showed up at my house, Amelia! They're forcing me to leave. I know this is your fault. I can't believe you'd do this. To your own mother! I'm disgusted. How did I raise such an ungrateful, nasty child?"
I bit down on the inside on my cheek until blood seeped onto my tongue.
"I didn't call anyone. Your doctor asked me how you were doing. I talked to him. But Mom, I was giving you time. Blame this on me if you want to, but it's been more years than I care to count."
She made a frustrated, dismissive noise. I sighed.
"Is there anything you need from me right now?"
The line went dead.
"Guess not."
I chucked my phone down onto the floorboard and folded my hands in my lap. The warm feelings I had mere minutes ago became cold and wet. Shameful.
Silent minutes ticked by while Raph kept driving, letting me process. He deserved to know what was happening. A screaming phone conversation left a lot of questions.
"So, that was my mom…"
"Is everything okay? Are you okay?"
Family stuff wasn't easy to talk about, even with Shell. But I trusted Raph implicitly, even if he wasn't there the whole time he'd earned it. I took a deep breath and shifted around in my seat.
"She's… The two of us didn't have a great relationship while I was growing up, so when my brother died, things really spiraled. For her and for us. Henry had been our peacekeeper. Without him, my mom felt alone. I wasn't an outlet. Online shopping became her main coping habit. It didn't take long for us to run out of free space. That's just how it was. I stopped fighting her on it pretty quickly. I guess that was the wrong thing, but—"
Raph placed a reassuring hand on my knee. "Hey. No. You were hurting, too. And you were just a kid. There's help for these kinds of things. What's the situation now?"
"I visited home on Saturday, and it wasn't good. She's not doing well health-wise, and we went to the doctor. When he asked me how she was, how things were, I told him the truth. So now I guess she has to get out of the house, but she didn't tell me where she's going. She didn't tell me anything, really."
I twisted the wrinkled fabric of my dress in my fingers, trying to relieve some of my stress and confusion. Where did I go from here? Should I cancel my plans and go deal with my mother? What was the next step?
Why did this have to happen while I had a million things going on? I still needed to get in touch with Derrick about the designs, since I skipped going into work in lieu of a lazy morning in bed. The jerk never emailed me back with his approval over the weekend.
And then there was the presentation, and the implementation at the Experience Shoreview site. All of that on top of my muddy situation with the man of my dreams stretched me too thin. Adding my mother's drama would break me.
"What do you need right now?" Raph squeezed my knee, and I relaxed.
Slightly.
"I guess I need to make some phone calls."
Chapter Twenty-Three
Raph
With every phone call Lia made to various family members, more emotion drained from her face. By the time we pulled into her building's lot, she looked like she was cast from steel. It set me on edge.
"Thanks for driving me home, Raph. Sorry I can't make it to whatever you had planned," she said.
She gathered her things from the car and opened the door. Before I could stop myself, my arm shot out, grabbing her arm. Her eyes darted to me, and she paused.
