"Look. Your mother-in-law sent this to threaten me. Are you still going to deny it? Unless you think I grabbed her phone and typed it myself?"

Cary went quiet.

"Mom, this really is your fault. If you hadn't insisted on coming over for dinner, Yvonne never would have done any of this."

"Mom, you're lucky Yvonne isn't making a bigger deal out of this. If you ask me, you owe her an apology."

My son's absurd words nearly made me black out from rage.

She was the one who gave me a dog bowl. She was the one who expected me to eat out of it like an animal.

And somehow, I was the one who owed her an apology.

There wasn't a universe where that made sense.

And I, Janet Abbott, would never accept it.

I unbuckled my seatbelt, grabbed the bowl of noodles, and dumped every last drop onto the passenger seat.

"Cary, listen to me carefully. She's the one who was wrong. I will not apologize."

His eyes went wide as noodles and broth oozed across the leather upholstery.

"Oh, and one more thing. You two wanted boundaries between us and your father."

"Fine. Your father and I will give you exactly what you asked for."

I hailed a cab to the hospital.

During the ride, I tallied up everything Bryan and I had given Cary since his wedding.

The house: 2,100 square feet in the best school district in town.

The car: a brand-new BMW, seventy thousand dollars.

Every single month, without fail, Bryan and I wired them a thousand dollars to help support their little household.

Thank God that when Cary got married, I'd listened to my oldest friend's advice. The house and the car were both in Bryan's name and mine.

The plan had always been to transfer the titles once they had children.

Now there was no need.

I pulled up Stuart Lambert's number.

"Stuart, I've got a house to sell. As long as it moves this week, you set the price. I don't care what it goes for."

"There's also a car. Same terms."

"One thing, though. There are people living in the house, and I don't have the car keys on me. That might complicate things."

A real estate agent who'd just been told price was no object?

He agreed before I even finished the sentence.

Bryan would be discharged within the week. Once the house and car were dealt with, Cary and Yvonne could have all the boundaries they wanted.

At the hospital, I set the noodles I'd bought on the bedside table.