Chapter 4 - The Escalation
My family had always relied on my guilt. They believed that because I was the "responsible one," the elder sister, the nurse, I would always bend before they broke. They had no idea that a nurse spends her life watching people suffer the consequences of their own bad choices—and that eventually, you learn when to stop administering CPR to a dead relationship.
The next day, my mother showed up at the hospital.
I was exiting the ICU after delivering a patient transfer when I saw her sitting in the waiting area. She looked different without her kitchen fortress. She looked smaller, her designer purse clutched tightly in her lap, her eyes darting around the busy corridor until they locked onto me.
"Emily," she said, standing up and smoothing her skirt. "We need to talk. This childish silent treatment has gone on long enough."
"I am on duty, Rebecca," I said, refusing to call her 'Mom.' "You cannot be here."
"I am your mother!" she hissed, her voice dropping into that sharp, venomous register I knew so well. "You are embarrassing me! Do you know what the neighbors are saying? They saw the foreclosure notice delivered to the door. We have been the pillars of that neighborhood for twenty years!"
"You've been living on my salary for three years," I said, stepping closer so the surrounding visitors couldn't hear us. "You threw me out because I asked your precious son to stop stealing my car. You told me my presence was poison. Well, the poison is gone. How does the clean air taste?"
"You are a selfish, ungrateful girl," she whispered, her eyes shining with real, ugly fury. "We raised you. We gave you everything."
"You gave me a mountain of debt and a guilt complex," I said, turning my back on her. "Bailiff, please escort this woman out of the clinical area."
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The security guard, a large man named Marcus who knew how much I did for the department, stepped forward with a polite but unyielding expression. "Ma'am, you need to leave the floor."
Rebecca stared at me, her mouth opening and closing in disbelief, before she turned on her heel and stormed toward the elevators.
