“I paid $900 for the dinner you were going to eat. $1,200 for gifts you were going to open. That money matters, too. Or at least it should.”
“Wait,” Robert said. “You canceled the dinner and the gifts?”
“I returned them, every one of them, and I got my money back.”
The silence on the other end of the phone was absolute. I could imagine Robert’s face processing this information.
“I can’t believe you did that,” Amanda finally said. “The kids are going to be devastated.”
“The kids are going to be fine. They’re resilient. What won’t be fine is if they keep growing up thinking that grandmas only exist to serve them.”
Amanda put her phone away. Her eyes were shining, but I didn’t know if it was from tears or rage.
“Fine,” she said. “Go. Take your trip. But don’t expect things to go back to the way they were when you get back.”
“I don’t want things to go back to the way they were. That’s exactly the point.”
She turned around and started walking to her car. Then she stopped and looked at me over her shoulder.
“You’re going to regret this.”
“The only thing I regret is not having done it sooner.”
I watched her get into the car where Martin was waiting. Even from a distance, I could see her tense body language as she told him what had happened. The car started quickly and disappeared into the darkness of the street.
I closed the door and leaned against it. My hands were shaking. My heart w
