Chapter 6: The Woman Behind the List
Seven rules.
I sat with that number for a moment.
"Kara's husband," I said.
"What happened to him?"
"He didn't sign." Daniel's voice was flat.
"He and Kara fought about it for weeks.
Eventually he agreed to most of it verbally, without signing anything.
But the relationship between him and Kara's family was never the same."
"And Megan helped write that list."
"She told me she was proud of it.
She said Kara's mother-in-law had been a nightmare and the list was the only thing that gave Kara her life back." He paused.
"At the time, I thought — okay.
Different situation.
Difficult woman.
Maybe the list made sense for them."
"But now you're not sure."
"Now I'm sitting in your kitchen." He looked around the room slowly, as if he was seeing it fresh.
The photos on the wall.
The ceramic dish by the door where he used to drop his keys as a teenager.
"Kara's mother-in-law wasn't anything like you.
She was genuinely intrusive.
She would criticize everything Kara did.
She told Kara she was a bad mother when the baby was three weeks old."
"And I rearranged a spice rack and told your wife's mother she seemed tired."
"I know."
"Daniel, I need to ask you something directly.
Do you think Megan believes what she said last night?
That I'm like Diane?
Or is something else happening?"
He was quiet for a long time.
"I think," he said slowly, "that Megan has a framework.
For how she sees mothers-in-law.
And once you fit into the framework, everything you do gets read through it.
Even the good things."
"So it doesn't matter what I actually do."
"It matters.
But it has to fight against the framework first."
I stood up and went to the window.
The street was quiet.
Two houses down, a man was raking leaves his kids had already jumped through twice.
"Is there anyone who could talk to her?" I said.
"Her therapist?
Someone she trusts who isn't Kara?"
"Her therapist is good.
But Megan has to want to hear it."
"Does she have any family who sees this differently?
A sibling?
A cousin?"
Daniel hesitated.
"Her brother, Theo."
"Tell me about Theo."
"He's younger.
Thirty-one.
He and Megan are close, but they disagree about Diane.
Theo thinks Megan has overcorrected.
He thinks she sees control everywhere now, even where it isn't." He paused.
"He told me at Christmas that he worries about her.
That the therapy helped in some ways and made other things worse."
"Does Megan know he feels that way?"
"They've argued about it.
She thinks he doesn't understand because he was younger when things were worst with Diane.
He didn't experience it the same way."
I turned back from the window.
"Would Theo talk to me?"
Daniel blinked.
"What?"
"Not to conspire.
Not to go around Megan.
Just to understand.
He knows her better than almost anyone.
And right now I'm trying to figure out if there's a real path forward here or if I'm going to spend the next twenty years paying a hundred dollars a visit to see my grandchild through a window."
Daniel almost smiled.
It faded quickly.
"I can ask him," he said.
"I can't promise he'll agree."
"That's all I'm asking."
He stood up.
He was taller than his father had been, and sometimes when he stood in a certain light I could see his father in him so clearly it ached.
His father had been gone six years.
He had never met Megan.
I had always thought that was a loss.
Now I wondered if it was a mercy.
"Mom." He stopped at the kitchen door.
"I'm going to fix this.
I don't know how yet.
But I'm not going to keep standing in the middle saying nothing."
"I know you mean that."
"I do."
He left.
I listened to his car back out of the driveway.
My phone buzzed on the table.
Not Daniel.
Not Megan.
A number I didn't recognize.
A text message.
*Hi Linda.
This is Theo.
May you like
Daniel just called me.
I think we should talk.*
