She looked confused now, confused that I was confused.
“Grandma’s vitamins,” she said. “The ones she says help me be good and strong. She says I have to take them every day when she comes after preschool.”
Something cold and sharp moved through me.
My mother-in-law, Linda Mercer, watched Ava three afternoons a week while I finished shifts at the dental office and my husband, Daniel, worked late at the insurance firm downtown. Linda had been the obvious choice when our old sitter moved to Arizona at the end of the summer. She lived fifteen minutes away. She adored telling everyone that family should take care of family. And when she first offered, she’d pressed a hand to her chest and said, “I would love extra time with my granddaughter.”
I had been grateful.
