I believed him, but his silence had hurt me.
“We need to talk to your mother,” I said.
That evening, we visited Margaret.
She dismissed our concerns, insisting Tessa was a wonderful young woman who helped her when nobody else would.
“Have you given her money?” I asked.
Margaret lifted her chin. “I promised to help with her baby. At least she doesn’t make me feel like a burden.”
Roy suggested hiring a professional caregiver.
Margaret immediately began talking about her age, loneliness, and difficulty managing the stairs.
Then she looked at me.
“If Tessa isn’t welcome anymore, I suppose I’ll have to move in with you. Unless you’d rather put your own mother in a home.”
Roy looked uncomfortable.
We left without resolving anything, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Margaret was hiding something.
“I need to ask her one more thing,” I told Roy. “Wait here.”