The cracks were starting to show.
The family, which always assumes the children are right, was beginning to question.
At 7:00 in the evening, Linda’s phone rang.
It was the next door neighbor from my old house.
“Mrs. Betty, I just wanted to tell you that everyone in the community knows what happened. And you are completely right. I saw you every day taking out the trash, washing their car, buying groceries, and they never even thanked you.”
“How did they find out?”
“Emily went to the store this afternoon. Her eyes were swollen from crying. And when Mrs. Carmela asked her what was wrong, she exploded. She blamed you for everything. That you were ungrateful. That you left them on the street. That you were being selfish.”
I felt my blood boil.
“And what did the neighbors say?”
The woman laughed.
“Mrs. Carmela told her that you were the owner of the house and had every right to leave whenever you wanted, that she would have done the same thing, and the other ladies said worse things. Emily ran back home.”
