“There is no need to bother changing the locks, my dear, because I have no intention of ever returning.”
A few moments later, Clinton took the phone from her and changed his voice into something friendlier and more persuasive.
“Margaret, listen to me, we are all just a little upset right now,” he said smoothly. “Just tell me where you are sitting, and I will come pick you up in the car.”
“No, Clinton.”
“Let us be reasonable adults here,” he insisted. “You live in our home completely free of rent every single month.”
Those words cleared the last bit of fog from my mind.
“Clinton, I handed you two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from the sale of my house four years ago.”
“That was generous family financial assistance, Margaret,” he answered smoothly.
“Then you can comfortably consider the last four years as rent paid in full advance,” I said, and hung up.
I got off the bus and walked to the home of Clara, an old friend I had worked with for decades at the regional medical clinic.
When Clara opened her door and saw me standing there clutching my red purse, she asked no questions.
“Come inside right now,” she said gently, pulling me into her warm hallway.
At her kitchen table, I told her everything that had happened over the previous four years.
Clara shook her head sadly.
She had seen the warning signs before I had.
“I warned you when you sold your property, Margaret, but you were completely heartbroken over Donald’s death and could not see clearly.”
I reached into my bag and lined up my essential documents on the wooden table.
My driver’s license.
Bank cards.
Retirement pension papers.
Everything important was safely with me.
Finally, I pulled out the heavy brass keys to Stephanie’s house.
I removed the tiny yellow plastic dinosaur keychain my grandson, Mason, had given me months earlier, tucked it into my pocket, and tossed the brass keys into Clara’s trash can.
“I am finally thinking clearly now, Clara,” I said with a soft smile. “I no longer hold keys to any prison.”
When I turned on my phone the next morning, thirty seven unread messages from Stephanie filled the screen.
