My father kept his eyes lowered to the floor, his voice barely more than a whisper.
“I accidentally dropped the basket, and I did not mean to cause any trouble for anyone in the house.”
I turned toward my mother-in-law, my voice icy and controlled even though fury was burning through me.
“And did it not occur to either of you to hand him a mop or perhaps offer to help? Were you not even slightly ashamed to watch an elderly man scrubbing my floor like a servant?”
Heather crossed her arms over her chest with a look of stubborn defiance.
“Oh, Chloe, please do not start with the melodrama. If the man spilled his mess, he should be the one to clean it up. Besides, nobody actually forced him to show up here with his cheap farm gifts.”
“Heather,” I said, my voice sinking into a low and dangerous calm, “I am the one who pays every single bill for this house. And nobody in this home will ever treat my father like that again.”
Susan immediately straightened herself, smoothing her blouse and arranging that false, injured expression she always wore when she wanted to make herself the victim.
“You are being completely dramatic. Your father just showed up out of the blue, looking completely flustered and confused. He said he needed to speak with Kyle immediately. Then he dropped his things and tried to clean it up by himself, so we really did not do anything wrong.”
I looked around the room, feeling the last of my patience disappear.
“Where is Kyle at the moment?”
The room became terribly silent for a long moment before my mother-in-law finally chose to answer.
“He went out,” she replied, checking her watch. “He had something very urgent to attend to.”
I reached into my bag and took out my cell phone, ready to end the confusion immediately.
“Then I am going to call him right now and ask him exactly what is going on.”
The moment my thumb hovered over the screen to unlock it, my father seized my wrist with a desperate strength that shocked me.
“No, sweetheart. Please, do not call him yet.”
I stared down at him, completely confused by the pure panic written across his face.
“Dad, what is the matter with you? Why are you acting like this?”
“Come with me,” he whispered, his eyes flicking toward the others. “Please, we need to be alone.”
He led me toward the guest bedroom and pulled me inside, locking the door securely behind us before sinking onto the edge of the bed as though every bit of strength had drained out of him. I stayed standing in the middle of the room, my heart beating so hard that I could hear it in my ears.
“Dad, you need to tell me the absolute truth right now. Why are you here, and what exactly did Kyle tell you?”
