Chapter 6: The Call He Made
Casey put the baby in his bouncer on the kitchen floor and walked quietly to the hallway.
She stood just outside the door Derek had closed behind him.
I stayed at the kitchen table.
I could see her from where I sat — the way her hand went to the wall to steady herself, the way her head tilted toward the door.
She came back two minutes later.
"He called his mother," she said.
"What did he tell her?"
Casey sat down.
She pressed her palms flat on the table.
"He told her you came over and started making threats.
That you brought documents to try to take the house." She paused.
"He told her you were trying to push him out."
"He said that."
"I heard him." She looked up.
"Mom, his mother is — she's not a gentle woman.
If Derek tells her you're a threat to this family, she will show up here.
She has before."
"Over what?"
Casey hesitated.
"Over me.
When Derek and I had a bad patch two years ago — before the baby — she came over and told me that if I ever left her son, she would make sure I lost the house.
She said Derek had rights." She stopped.
"She didn't know the deed was in my name.
I don't think Derek had told her yet."
I thought about that.
"Does she know now?"
"I don't know.
Maybe Derek just told her." Casey's voice was careful.
"Mom, I need you to understand something about Sandra.
She has never liked me.
She tolerated me because Derek wanted to marry me.
But she has always thought he could have done better."
"And the $23,000?"
"Was her idea." Casey said it quietly, like she'd been holding it a long time.
"She offered it.
She came to us.
And I think — I think she did it so she'd have something over us.
Over me."
I looked at my daughter.
"You think she expected you not to pay it back."
"I think she hoped we wouldn't." Casey folded her hands.
"Because then she'd always have a reason to be involved.
A reason Derek would have to come to her.
A reason I'd owe her something."
The front door opened.
We both looked up.
Sandra walked in without knocking.
She was a tall woman, well-dressed, with the kind of posture that said she had never once doubted her right to be in any room she entered.
Derek appeared behind her, his face unreadable.
She looked at me first.
Then at the documents still on the table.
"So," she said.
"You're the one stirring things up."
I didn't stand up.
"Hello, Sandra."
"Don't hello me." She walked to the table and picked up the bank letter.
Read it.
Set it down.
"You paid off a mortgage.
That doesn't make you the owner of this house."
"No," I said.
"The deed does.
And the deed has Casey's name on it."
Sandra looked at Casey.
"You let her come in here and do this?"
"She didn't let me do anything," I said.
"Casey didn't know I was bringing these documents.
This was my decision."
"Your decision." Sandra's voice was sharp and thin.
"You have no idea what this family has been carrying.
What Derek has sacrificed.
What I have contributed to keep this household running."
"Twenty-three thousand dollars," I said.
"I'm aware."
Sandra's chin lifted.
"Then you know that your daughter owes us.
And until that debt is settled, I have every right to be part of what happens in this house."
Casey stood up.
"No," she said.
"You don't."
Sandra turned to her slowly.
"Excuse me?"
"You don't have a right to be in this house." Casey's voice was shaking, but she didn't stop.
"You walked in without knocking.
You've done that before and I let it go.
I'm not letting it go today."
Derek stepped forward.
"Casey—"
"No, Derek." She turned to him.
"You called her.
You brought her here.
And now she's standing in my house telling me what rights she has." She looked back at Sandra.
"The deed is in my name.
The mortgage is paid.
This is my house.
And I am asking you to leave."
Sandra didn't move.
She looked at me instead.
"You think you've won something today," she said quietly.
"You haven't."
She set her purse strap back on her shoulder.
Then she said four words I felt in my chest like a stone dropping into water.
May you like
"Ask Derek about Renfield."
And she walked out.
