The room filled with uncomfortable shifting.
Even the men started reading over each other’s shoulders.
Eli looked genuinely stunned.
“You never told me.”
I looked at him.
“When?”
He blinked.
“I…”
“When would I have told you? Every time I tried to bring up your mother’s behavior, you said she didn’t mean it that way.”
He lowered his eyes, but I wasn’t finished.
“When she criticized my cooking.”
Silence.
“When she rearranged my kitchen.”
Silence.
“When she walked into our bedroom without knocking.”
His head snapped up.
“She what?”
I let out one tired laugh.
“See?”
His face changed.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did. Every time, you said she was just trying to help.”
His face fell because he remembered.
“Exactly.”
For years, he’d heard me.
He just hadn’t listened.
Gladys tried to reclaim the room.
“You’re making me sound like a monster.”
“No,” I said quietly. “You did that yourself.”
She pointed at my phone.
“You humiliated me.”
I looked down at the livestream.
Then back at her.
“The camera didn’t humiliate you.” I held up the screen. “It recorded you.”
Those were not the same thing.
She looked around the room.
“Eli.”
He didn’t answer.
“Eli.”
He finally met her eyes.
“What?”
“Tell your wife to stop this.”
“My wife isn’t doing anything.” His voice was calm. “You are.”
She frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you insulted her.”
“I criticized her.”
“You humiliated her.”
“I was helping.”
“You called her a bad wife.”
“I called her…”
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She stopped, because she’d realized no version of that sentence sounded better.
Eli stood.
For the first time all afternoon, he walked away from the couch.
Away from his mother.
He stopped beside me.
“Ivy.”
I didn’t look at him.
“I’m sorry.”
I stayed quiet.
He nodded once.
“I know that’s not enough.”
“It isn’t.”
He took a slow breath.
“I should’ve stopped this years ago. Instead, I let you carry everything alone.”
That one landed because it was true.
He turned toward the room.
