“I did not say I owned the room,” I told him. “I said I paid for the house you are trying to put me out of.”
Paula looked from him to me. “You told me it was settlement money.”
“I said your mother had money from the house.”
“You said it was a settlement.”
“I might have used that word.”
“You did.”
His voice rose, but he did not shout. That made it more frightening to me than shouting would have been. He sounded like a man trying to keep control of a conversation that was no longer his.
Colleen finally set her purse on the floor.
“I am sorry, Marguerite,” she said. “I should have come to you first.”
“You should have.”
“I thought you already knew what he wanted.”
“I did not.”
She nodded once. “I know.”
Paula looked at the papers in Colleen’s purse. “Are they here?”
Colleen took them out but did not hand them to Dale. She placed them on the table between the plates.
“I am not signing anything,” I said.
Dale gave a short laugh. “Nobody asked you to sign today.”
“You asked Colleen to bring them.”
“That was not an order.”
“It does not have to be an order if you expect people to do what you say.”
Paula picked up the papers. She read the first page, then the next. I watched her eyes move, but I did not ask what she saw. The papers were about my staying in the house and the arrangement Dale wanted me to accept. I did not need to guess at their purpose anymore. He had decided that my room was worth more to him than my comfort, and he had tried to put that decision in front of me as if it were an ordinary family matter.
Paula set the papers down.
“You are not giving these to Mom,” she said.
Dale looked at her. “Paula.”
“No. You do not get to do this behind my back and then tell me I am not in the middle.”
“I was trying to solve a problem.”
“Your problem is that my mother lives here.”
“Our problem is that she has been here four years.”
“She gave us the money for this house.”
“I know what she gave us.”
“Then why did you call it a line item?”
He did not answer.
The roast sat untouched. Colleen remained standing, and I could see that she wanted to leave but did not want to leave me alone with the two of them. Paula seemed to understand that. She moved her chair closer to mine.
Dale picked up his phone from the table.