Daniel didn’t follow me out.
I stayed at the hotel for the next three days.
He kept sending messages, but I ignored anything that sounded like another argument.
*Mom is devastated.*
No response.
*Claire thinks you’re taking this too far.*
No response.
Then:
*Can we please figure this out together?*
That one received an answer.
*Yes. When you’re ready to discuss our marriage instead of your mother’s feelings.*
After that, he went quiet.
On January 4, Daniel asked to meet again.
This time, he suggested a small Italian restaurant halfway between the hotel and our house.
He was already sitting in a corner booth when I arrived.
He looked different.
Not dramatically.
Just tired enough that he had stopped pretending everything could return to normal.
“I changed the locks,” he said before I sat down.
I stopped.
“All of them?”
“Front door, side door, garage access.”
“And your mother?”
“She doesn’t have a key.”
I removed my coat.
Daniel continued.
“She found out yesterday.”
“How?”
“She came over.”
Of course she did.
“What happened?”
“She tried the key, realized it didn’t work, and called me.”
I could picture Margaret standing on the porch with the useless key in her hand, looking as though someone had rewritten the law without asking her permission.
“What did you tell her?”
“That we changed the locks.”
“We?”
Daniel gave me a tired look.
“I told her I changed them.”
That mattered more than I expected.
“And?”
“She demanded another key.”
I waited.
“I said no.”
For the first time since New Year’s Eve, I genuinely didn’t know what to say.
Daniel looked down.
“She cried. Then she yelled. Then she said Dad would be ashamed of me.”
“And what did you say?”
“I said Dad left the house to me, not to her.”
I slowly sat down.
Daniel rubbed his palms together.
“I should have said that two years ago.”
“Yes.”
“I know you’re angry.”
“I’m more disappointed than angry.”
“That might be worse.”
“It is.”
The server came by, and we ordered coffee.
After she left, Daniel continued.
“Claire called afterward.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“She said Mom spent the whole morning telling relatives you forced me to lock her out of Dad’s house.”
That didn’t surprise me.
“What did Claire say?”
“She told Mom it wasn’t true.”
That did surprise me.
Daniel noticed.
“Apparently Claire has been dealing with the same kind of thing since she started dating Mark.”
“Margaret doesn’t like him either.”
