I'd never said Dick touched the toy on purpose.
I exhaled slowly.
When I spoke again, my voice was more urgent.
"Mom, I'm not joking."
"Lily fell asleep after the long car ride. She never even saw the toy."
"You're right that Dick would never play with it. But he slipped and fell. That's how he made contact."
"I'm doing chest compressions right now. I literally cannot take my hands off him to mop."
"Please believe me. I would never joke about something like this."
Every word out of my mouth was dead serious. There wasn't a shred of humor in my voice, and Kate knew it. She knew me well enough to know I never lied, and on something this grave, I had no reason to make things up.
Kate hesitated. Visibly.
But I knew exactly what kind of person she was. Her favorite pastime was contradicting me, so I pressed on before she could dig in.
"How about this: you open the door, come in and see for yourself. While you're at it, you can tidy up the room so nobody has anything to gossip about, and it won't delay getting Dick the help he needs."
That had actually been Kate's plan.
But the moment I was the one to suggest it, she rejected it without a second thought.
"Absolutely not."
"Everyone online says mothers-in-law need to respect boundaries. You're not supposed to barge in on a married couple's private life. That's why I haven't even dared set foot inside!"
I rolled my eyes so hard it was a miracle they didn't get stuck.
Back when Dick and I first got married, I hadn't been planning on having children yet. It was Kate who snuck into our room and tampered with things, which led to my unplanned pregnancy. Because I hadn't been taking prenatal vitamins or preparing my body, I was afraid the baby might be affected and wanted to terminate. Kate threw a fit, threatening to kill herself if I went through with the abortion. Then when Lily was born with hearing problems, Kate turned around and blamed me.
But I didn't argue any of that. Instead, I kept offering solutions.
"Okay, then how about this."
"Turn off the signal jammer. I'll take a photo and send it to you so you can see for yourself that it's Dick who got electrocuted."
Kate scoffed.
"These days they've got AI that can fake photos. You're obviously trying to trick me."