Page 11 of Keepsake

“Do you understand what just happened here?”

“She’s gone,” Mamá said, nodding to herself after a good day’s work. “The subject is dropped.”

“It is not dropped. She’s getting lawyers involved. Do you understand what that means?”

“I won’t fight her.” She stood up, heading to the kitchen. “She can fight alone at court.”

I laughed. I never used such a cruel laugh with my own mother, but then again, I remembered her being reasonable.

“She’ll take the kids.”

Mamá shook her head. “No one is going to take kids from their family.”

I breathed through my nose, trying to calm myself. “Sofia made Logan their guardian. Logan has money to bury this family in legal fees. It is nothing for her and might be everything for us.”

“I am their grandmother,” she started again.

I couldn’t let her say it one more time. “You are in your late sixties. Logan is young, rich, and their legal guardian. And even if it wasn't for all the obvious reasons, how selfish could you be?”

She almost tripped on her feet, shrieking unintelligent words for the way I dared to talk to her.

“If this is dragged out in court, do you understand how bad it’s going to be for the kids? How horrible is it going to be for them to have to go through this? And they will read the letter.”

Mamá moved so fast I barely saw it coming. One second she had her hand on her waist, a disapproving face, the next she was close to me, her face scrunched in a murderous glare.

“No one is reading that letter.”

There again. Mamá had rules which we all had to obey. She decided our fates and made sure to always double down on the guilt trip if we ever dared go against her.

“They will if you bring this to court. You’re hurting them.”

Low? A little. That was her argument, wasn’t it? Family was everything. People were expected to make sacrifices for their family. Right now, our concept of family was broken. Sofia broke us. She left this world and left us behind, not knowing what to do without her.

Saying the words I might regret, I looked into my mother’s eyes, knowing I was about to hurt her. “Sofia knew she wanted to leave this world. And she knew who she wanted to raise her kids. It’s about time you respect her wishes.”

Without dealing with the consequences of my words, I left, got into my truck, and drove away.

“Pickup,pickup,”I chanted in the car on my way back to the city, blowing up Logan’s phone.

She finally picked up.

“Don’t call your lawyers.” It was the first thing out of my mouth.

As much as Mamá’s stubbornness infuriated me, I knew bringing this to court could destroy my family.

That was the last thing I wanted.

“Your plan isn’t working.”

“Logan, listen…”

“No,” she replied sharply. “I can’t keep tiptoeing around your mother. Those kids deserve the best.”

“This is hard for her.”

“It’s hard for everyone. I lost Sofia, too. You lost a sister. And more than anything, those kids lost their mother.”

I nodded to myself. “So you see how making them go through a court dispute is the worst way to handle this?”

---