She tried to stand.
Her legs failed underneath her.
I reached her before she hit the ground.
She felt impossibly small.
I wrapped both arms around her while she pressed her face against my chest.
She started crying so hard she couldn’t speak.
“Hey,” I whispered. “I’m here.”
Her fingers clutched my shirt.
“You weren’t supposed to be home.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t want you to see me like this.”
I looked at her shaved head.
At her bruised arms.
At the bowl of leftovers.
Then at my mother.
“Why does my wife look like she’s starving?”
“Marcus, listen—”
“How long has she had cancer?”
Nobody answered.
I looked down at Serena.
“How long?”
She wiped her face.
“Almost ten months.”
Ten months.
I had sent more than thirty thousand dollars during those ten months alone.
I looked around.
New patio furniture.
New sliding doors.
Outdoor kitchen.
Travis’s truck.
A television visible through the living-room window that looked large enough for a movie theater.
Then I looked at Serena’s cracked slippers.
“How many treatments did she miss?”
Mother started speaking quickly.
“You don’t understand the situation. Serena became impossible after she got sick. She stopped helping. She complained constantly. She tried selling things from the house—”
My eyes fell to the necklace around her neck.
“That necklace belongs to Serena.”
Mother immediately touched the pendant.
“She tried to pawn it.”
“For medication,” Serena whispered.
I looked at her.
Mother cut in.
“We stopped her from making a stupid decision.”
I stood slowly.
“How much of the money I sent did you spend on her medical care?”
My mother’s face changed.
“Marcus—”
“How much?”
“We helped.”
“How much?”
Travis stepped forward.
“Bro, you need to calm down.”
I looked at him.
