Chapter 18 - The Phantom on the Porch
I thought I had seen the last of Patricia Hale on the day of the trial, but a mother’s desperation knows no bounds, especially when she has been cut off from her primary source of income.
It was a Sunday evening. Daniel was in the backyard grilling dinner, and I was in the living room reading a book. The doorbell rang. I walked to the front door, expecting a package delivery, and pulled it open.
My mother stood on the porch.
The transformation was shocking. She was no longer the arrogant, silk-wearing socialite who had sneered at me in the ballroom. She wore a faded, oversized coat. Her hair, once perfectly styled and dyed, showed thick gray roots. The designer purse was gone, replaced by a cheap canvas tote.
"Lena," she said, her voice shaking, attempting to sound fragile and heartbroken.
I didn't open the screen door. I stood in the entryway, my posture rigid, my expression blank. "What are you doing here, Patricia?"
She flinched at the use of her first name. "Please, sweetheart. I have nowhere to go. The bank took the house. Tyler won't speak to me. I haven't eaten a hot meal in two days. You have this massive house, Lena. You have so much room. Please, just let your mother in."
She pressed her hand against the mesh screen, tears pooling in her eyes. It was a masterful performance, designed to strike directly at the core of a daughter's empathy.
But I looked at her hand, and my mind flashed back to the ballroom. I saw that same hand holding a glass of champagne. I saw the cold, satisfied smile on her face as she looked down at me bleeding on the marble floor. She didn't want a daughter; she just wanted a warm bed and a new host to leech off of.
"You lost the right to call yourself my mother the moment you smiled while he broke my face," I said, my voice eerily calm.
"I was in shock! I didn't know what to do!" she wailed, grabbing the handle of the screen door.
"You knew exactly what to do," I corrected her. "You chose him. You chose the money. Now you have to live with the consequences of those choices."
"Lena, please! You can't just abandon your family!"
May you like
"I already did," I replied.
I reached out, closed the heavy wooden door, and turned the deadbolt. I didn't look back through the peephole. I walked straight to the backyard, wrapped my arms around Daniel's waist, and watched the sunset, leaving the phantom on the porch to fade away into the night.
