She must have overheard our conversation. The moment she stepped through the door, her eyes were already rimmed with red.
"Jill, I'm sorry. I'm getting old, and I haven't been any help to you. Instead, I'm causing trouble at the very time you need someone by your side."
Her voice cracked. Tears pooled along her lower lashes.
I looked at her, a tangle of emotions knotting in my chest.
In all the years since the wedding, Jean Delgado and I had always gotten along well. Every year on her birthday, I remembered the date before Brad did, starting on her gift a full month in advance. When she mentioned that the old family house was falling apart, I emptied my savings without a second thought and hired a crew to renovate it into something beautiful. Last year, when she broke her leg and ended up in the hospital, I was the one at her bedside every single day—sponge-bathing her, feeding her, handling the bedpan.
She had held my hand that day, tears streaming down her face. "Jill, you are the best daughter-in-law in the world."
"If my son ever does anything to wrong you, I'll be the first one to make him pay."
I had believed her.
I thought sincerity would be repaid with sincerity.