I Was Counting Down To Leave Him novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: Enid Tears the Check
Judith Ellery came to my mother's cottage at ten on Tuesday morning, in a camel coat, with a lawyer on each side.
She walked past the reporters at the end of the road without turning her head.
I watched from the upstairs window.
"Stay up there," my mother said from the bottom of the stairs. "She came for me."
"Mom."
"I've been waiting three years for that woman to knock on my door."
Enid opened it before Judith could knock.
She had flour to the elbows and her reading glasses on their chain.
"Mrs. Ellery," she said. "You're blocking my light."
"Mrs. Marden." Judith's smile was small and exact. "I'd like a few minutes. A private conversation, between mothers."
"You can have them on the porch. I've got bread."
The two lawyers stayed on the steps.
The reporters had crept closer along the fence, and one of them was already filming.
I opened the upstairs window an inch.
"Your daughter is ill," Judith said. She said it gently. "I want her looked after. There's a place near Portland, very quiet, very well run."
She held out a glossy brochure.
"And I know what the last few years have cost you. I know about the hospital."
Enid wiped her hands on her apron and did not take the brochure.
"What about the hospital?"
"Your treatment. The bills your daughter couldn't cover on a planner's income." Judith opened her bag and drew out a long blue check. "This is for you. For the cottage, for whatever you need. All I ask is that you tell Flora it is time to rest, and to sign what the family prepares."
She said the number out loud, so the reporters could hear that it was generous.
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