At 5:05 p.m., we pulled into the driveway. Melissa was pacing on the porch, her arms crossed tight over her chest. “Where on earth have you two been? The patio isn’t prepped!”
I stepped out of the rental car, my posture rigid. “Mom is off the clock tonight,” I stated, brushing past her and walking into my house.
Chapter 4: The Extubation
By 5:30 p.m., the dining room had been transformed into Melissa’s personal theater. Linen napkins were intricately folded like swans. Expensive tapered candles formed a glowing runway down the center of the oak table. But what made my stomach turn was the dishware laid out on the buffet. It was my mother’s pristine, white-and-gold wedding china from 1979—the sacred plates we were strictly forbidden to touch unless it was Thanksgiving.
Sandra ran a manicured finger along the gold rim. “Wherever did you find these, Melissa?”
“Oh,” Melissa waved her hand dismissively, “they just came with the house.”
Came with the house. In Melissa’s twisted reality, my mother was merely a fixture, an obsolete appliance included in the foreclosure bailout.
Sandra snapped her fingers toward the kitchen. “Ellen! We need ice!”
I stepped smoothly into the archway, holding a crystal bucket. “I’ve got the ice, Sandra.”
Sandra blinked, startled, looking at me as if the refrigerator had suddenly grown legs and spoken. Melissa charged into the kitchen, the coarse black apron draped aggressively over her forearm. She thrust it toward my mother, her eyes locking onto mine in a silent, vicious challenge.
“Guests arrive in thirty minutes,” Melissa crooned with venomous sweetness. “We all have to play our parts.”
I watched my mother’s hands reflexively twitch upward—fourteen months of deeply ingrained subservience kicking in. I moved faster. I snatched the apron from Melissa’s hands.
“I’ll be playing Mom’s part tonight,” I said, effortlessly tying the coarse strings around my waist.
