I reminded her that she had just called my husband an outsider to my mother, so she couldn’t have it both ways just to shop through my mother’s things.
Russell was red faced with anger because I had embarrassed his mother in front of the entire family.
Hudson and Paige stood by my side while my son told his grandparents that they needed to stop talking to me in such a disrespectful manner.
Russell left with his parents in a storm of injured pride and did not come home for several days, which brought a silence I did not try to break.
When he finally returned, he handed me an envelope containing travel vouchers for a mountain resort and told me to take the kids for a break.
I was exhausted enough to be a fool, so I believed that maybe grief had finally cracked something open in him and he was trying to apologize.
I defended him to my children by saying that some people show remorse badly, even though Hudson and Paige remained suspicious of his sudden generosity.
Before the trip, I visited my children at their homes to cook for them and stock their freezers, enjoying the chance to be just their mother again.