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me until Chloe walked away.
Later that afternoon, Julian insisted that he and Chloe had “given up everything” to take care of her.
He proudly showed me grocery receipts, medication bottles, and legal paperwork that supposedly authorized him to manage all of her finances.
“She’s fortunate we put up with her moods,” Chloe added coldly. “You disappeared
into your career. Don’t come back pretending to be the devoted daughter.”
They expected guilt to keep me quiet.
It had fooled plenty of people who believed Julian’s polished version of the truth.
I simply smiled. “You’re right. I should help while I’m here.”
That evening, I offered to help Mom bathe.
She recoiled so violently that the drinking glass slippe
from her hands.
“Please,” she whispered. “Don’t take off my coat.”
I locked the bathroom door, turned on the shower to drown out our voices, and carefully eased the coat from her shoulders.
Dark bruises covered her ribs and shoulders.
Deep red rope marks circled both wrists.
Older yellow bruises lay beneath fresh purple ones across her back.
I stopped breathing.