Chapter 11 - The Condition
"Dad isn't invited," I said.
Karen nodded.
For a second, the parking lot seemed to tilt beneath me.
After everything, they had arrived at the exact same table.
"And you came to ask me to go?"
"I came because I don't trust myself not to make excuses for them."
It was the first answer I hadn't expected.
She looked exhausted.
No makeup.
Hair pulled back with the elastic she usually wore around her wrist.
"My mother said Dad has apologized enough in his life to people beneath him. Her words. Then she said you were teaching me to be disloyal."
"What do you think?"
"I think I've spent my whole life keeping her pleased and calling it peace."
"You handed the bill to my father."
"Yes."
No argument.
No explanation attached.
She unlocked her phone and called Elaine.
I moved away, but Karen shook her head.
"I want you to hear what I say. You don't have to say anything."
She put it on speaker.
Elaine answered brightly.
"Did you talk sense into him?"
"We're not coming Sunday."
"Karen."
"And you need to remove the post and correct what you said about Jack."
Her mother's voice hardened.
"After everything we've done for you?"
Karen's thumb trembled against the phone case.
"That doesn't make this right."
Howard came on the line.
"You let him walk out and now you're begging? Have some pride."
"I have enough to admit what I did."
They talked over her.
She waited, then repeated herself.
No shouting.
No speech about cutting them off forever.
Just a refusal they couldn't move.
When the call ended, she leaned against her car and cried.
I stayed beside her.
I didn't promise to come home.
"Will you tell your father?" she asked.
"Tell him what?"
"That I said no."
I watched her realize what she'd asked.
She lowered her eyes.
"Never mind. That's not something he owes me credit for."
"You can tell him about your life, Karen. Just let him decide what it means to him."
She nodded and put her phone away.
We stood there until a woman came out carrying laundry and asked us to move so she could back up.
The world hadn't stopped for our marriage.
We moved our cars.
"Our first counseling appointment is Tuesday," she said finally.
"Will you still come?"
"Yes."
She wiped her face.
"There's something else. Something I should have told you before we bought this house."
My chest tightened.
May you like
"What about the house?"
"The down payment. Your father helped us more than you knew."
