“Why? So Maya can sit there looking fragile while you accuse us of things?”
“She’s in the hospital.”
Silence.
“What?”
“She has an infection. Her incision reopened.”
“That’s not our fault.”
I closed my eyes.
I had hoped for surprise. Concern. Regret.
Anything.
“What happened to the money I sent?”
“Ask Mom.”
“I’m asking you.”
“We thought the trip would be good for everyone.”
“Everyone?”
“For the family.”
“My wife and son are my family.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t think I do anymore.”
My mother took the phone back.
“This is exactly what Maya wanted.”
“Maya wanted to be left alone after surgery with no food?”
“She had food.”
“She had two packets of noodles.”
“She is exaggerating.”
“I watched the security footage.”
For the first time, my mother had no answer.
The silence stretched between us.
Then she said, very quietly, “You had no right to record private conversations.”
“It’s my apartment.”
“That camera was supposed to be for burglars.”
“It was.”
Her breath caught.
“David, you are upset. I understand that. We made a mistake leaving earlier than planned.”
“You took the baby’s formula.”
“We replaced it.”
“You turned down the heat.”
“The apartment gets stuffy.”
“You took the food.”
“It would have spoiled.”
“And you spent the fourteen thousand dollars.”
“That money was for family expenses.”
“It was for Maya and Liam.”
“You said it was to take care of the family.”
Her voice had changed. She was no longer denying what happened. She was rearranging the meaning of it.
“I need you to come home,” I said.
“We are not getting on a plane just so you can perform some dramatic interrogation.”
“The hospital filed a report.”
I heard Chloe speaking in the background.
Then Mark.
My mother covered the phone, but I could still hear fragments.
Police.
Report.
Cameras.
When she returned, her voice was colder.
“What exactly did you tell them?”
“The truth.”
“You don’t know the truth.”
“I know what I saw.”
“No,” she said. “You saw one morning.”
Something in her tone made me pause.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Maya has not told you everything.”
I looked at my wife. She was watching me from the hospital bed.
“What hasn’t she told me?”
My mother exhaled slowly.
“You should ask her why she refused to let us call the doctor three days ago.”
I turned toward Maya.
Her face had gone still.
“Why would she refuse?” I asked.
