Chapter 2 - THE ROOM THEY ERASED
Mia stabilized shortly after sunrise.
The doctors warned Laura that the infection had damaged her kidneys and weakened her immune system. She would remain hospitalized for at least another week, followed by months of appointments and medication.
Once Mia fell asleep, Laura drove east through morning traffic toward her parents’ ranch house in Gresham.
Her key no longer worked.
She tried twice before walking around to the side entrance, which Robert never locked while he drank coffee in the kitchen.
Helen stood at the counter slicing an apple. Robert sat at the table in his undershirt, reading the sports section. Brianna leaned against the basement door wearing Laura’s gray cardigan.
“Where are our things?” Laura asked.
Helen kept cutting.
“We told you,” Robert said. “The room is no longer available.”
Laura stepped toward Brianna. “That sweater was in my closet.”
Brianna pulled the sleeves over her hands. “Mom said you weren’t coming back.”
“My child is in the hospital.”
“I know that.”
“Then take it off.”
Brianna looked toward their mother before removing the cardigan and setting it on a chair.
Laura opened the basement door.
The room looked larger without Mia’s twin bed, Laura’s desk, or the bookshelf Daniel had built before their marriage fell apart. Even the glow-in-the-dark stars Mia had arranged above her pillow were gone.
“You sold her school awards?” Laura asked.
Helen finally set down the knife. “We saved the important things.”
“Where?”
“They’re safe.”
Laura searched the empty shelves, the laundry alcove, and the utility closet. Clover was gone. So was Mia’s photo album and the framed watercolor she had painted of Mount Hood.
Robert folded his newspaper. “Stop making this uglier than it needs to be.”
“You emptied our home while she was unconscious.”
“It was our house,” he replied.
Laura looked at Brianna. “When did you find out you were moving in?”
Brianna’s eyes shifted toward the stairs.
Helen answered for her. “That’s none of your concern.”
A faint scraping sound came from the floor above them.
Laura glanced upward. The upstairs guest room had been used for storage since she was a teenager.
“What’s in that room?” she asked.
No one answered.
Then Helen stepped between Laura and the staircase.
“Mia will have everything she needs here,” she said.
Laura understood the words her mother had tried not to say.
May you like
The basement had been prepared for Brianna.
The upstairs room had been prepared for Mia.
