For 4 years, I picked up my sister’s kids from school for free. One day I was 37 minutes late, and she screamed at me in front of them: “Not with my children!” Then she shoved me out of her house. I stopped picking them up. 11 days later, the school called me. Then my sister called 6 times. I turned my phone face down.

“I answered the investigator’s questions.”

“You should have come to us first!”

“I did come to you, Mom.”

My voice rose despite my effort to remain calm.

“I sat at your dining table while you and Nicole asked me to support something that wasn’t true!”

Mom went silent.

Then she began defending my sister.

I ended the call.

There was nothing else to say.

A few days later, Mom had an accident in her driveway.

Her knee gave way, and she couldn’t get up.

The children were due to leave school soon, but Nicole wasn’t answering her phone.

When Mom called me, I immediately contacted Dan.

He came down from the roof where he’d been working and collected his children himself.

Then I drove Mom to urgent care.

We sat together in the waiting room.

After nearly an hour, she quietly spoke.

“The investigator contacted me.”