Chapter 3 - THE WARNING SIGNS I CALLED STRESS
Lily was released shortly before midnight.
Rachel would not go home.
“I’m taking her to Jenna’s.”
I stared at her across the hospital corridor.
“Why?”
She gave me a look I deserved.
“Because your mother has a key to our house.”
“I’ll change the locks.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
“And the garage code?”
“I’ll change that too.”
“And the spare key she keeps pretending she lost?”
That stopped me.
I had forgotten about it.
Rachel had not.
“I’ll handle everything.”
She shifted Lily higher against her shoulder.
“That’s what you said when I asked you to tell her she couldn’t come over without calling.”
I felt the words like a weight.
Rachel was not only afraid of Mom.
She did not trust me to keep Mom out.
Jenna stood nearby pretending not to listen.
She finally spoke.
“Rachel can stay with me.”
I nodded.
There was nothing else I could do without making the situation about what I wanted.
The next morning, I changed every lock.
Then I opened the drawer beside our refrigerator where Rachel kept her medical supplies.
There were gaps I had never noticed.
Rachel organized everything obsessively after her hospitalization.
Medication on the left.
Cuff batteries in a plastic container.
Appointment paperwork clipped by date.
Now I noticed three empty spaces.
I called her.
“Were there other missing bottles?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know. Four. Maybe five over the last two months.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did.”
That shut me up.
She had.
Not in one dramatic conversation.
In ordinary sentences.
Have you seen my refill?
I swear I put it here.
Your mom was cleaning this cabinet again.
I feel like I’m losing my mind.
I had answered each complaint separately.
That allowed me to avoid seeing the pattern.
Rachel continued.
“The strangest part was they sometimes came back.”
“What?”
“A bottle would disappear, then show up three days later somewhere obvious.”
My stomach tightened.
“Where?”
“Once on the bathroom counter.”
“Could you have—”
I stopped myself.
Rachel heard what I had almost said.
“No,” she replied.
The silence between us lasted several seconds.
Then she said:
“That’s exactly what she wanted you to think.”
After we hung up, I remembered something else.
Every time Rachel lost medication, Mom became more helpful.
She offered to stay overnight.
She suggested Rachel needed psychiatric treatment.
Twice, she told me privately that Lily needed “one stable woman around.”
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At the time I thought she meant herself as backup.
Now I wondered if she had meant replacement.
