Chapter 1

After I retired, I turned down a job that paid thirty-two thousand a month and moved into my daughter's home to raise my grandson for free.

The boy grew plump and rosy under my care, and my daughter told everyone how lucky she was, that her own mother was a ready-made, top-tier baby nurse.

That night, so hungry I could hardly stand it, I took a carton of yogurt from the fridge.

I'd barely had two sips when Judith fixed her eyes on the carton in my hand.

"No wonder the yogurt's been disappearing so fast these last couple of days. And here I thought the baby was eating all of it."

I hurried to explain.

"I bought this whole box yesterday. The payment's still there on my phone."

She curled her lip.

"And whose money is that, if not what my son earns? A grown woman your age, snatching food out of a child's mouth. Aren't you ashamed?"

Ken Perry heard the commotion and came over too, the look he gave me growing more disgusted by the second.

"Mom, if there's something you want to eat, can't you just say so ahead of time? You have to sneak it when no one's watching. If word got out, people would hear that the old folks in our house can't even keep their hands off the baby's food. How does that sound?"

Judith jumped right in.

"A few days in and already sneaking yogurt behind our backs. Give it long enough and what in this house won't she be willing to steal?"

They had me boxed in, with nothing left to say, so I looked to my daughter. She knew perfectly well I'd bought the yogurt, and still she frowned.

"Mom, why don't you just apologize to my mother-in-law? It's one carton of yogurt. Don't turn it into a whole thing and make everyone miserable."

Seeing that even my own daughter didn't believe me, something in my chest went tight, but in the end I lowered my head.

"Fine. Mom was in the wrong. From now on I won't touch anything of the baby's."

1

The words were barely out of my mouth when Judith Whitney took the half carton of yogurt from my hand and dropped it straight into the trash.

"See, was that so hard? When a family lives together, the worst thing is somebody who can't keep track of their own hands."

My face burned. I bought that yogurt, and somehow I was the one apologizing.

Only when Sabina James saw me bow my head did her expression finally ease.

"Mom, I know you didn't mean anything by it. We're just doing this for the baby. Don't take it to heart."

Ken glanced at the time on his phone and prodded me, impatient.

"The bottles still aren't washed, right? Mom, you need to have the baby's solids ready ahead of time. Don't be banging around at midnight again keeping me up."

I stood there, not moving.

From five o'clock that morning until now, all I'd had were a few mouthfuls of the noodles the baby left at lunch.

That evening the four of them ate hot pot, while I held my crying grandson in the bedroom for more than two hours, soothing him. By the time he fell asleep, the food on the table had long been cleared away.

I was so hungry I couldn't take it, and that was when I took one carton of yogurt.

Judith saw I was still standing there, and her face fell again.

"What now, a couple of words and you're the wronged one? Nobody's shortchanging you. You live here rent-free, you eat here for free, and all you do all day is look after your own grandson. What is there to be unhappy about?"

It was true that I ate and drank here for nothing. But every cent the baby cost came out of my pocket. This month alone I'd spent over four thousand on formula and diapers.

And last week, when the HOA dues came around, that too was covered from my pension.

I opened my mouth, but the words came right up to my lips and I swallowed them back down.

Sabina lost her father when she was small, and all these years my greatest fear was that after she married she'd be mistreated in her husband's family. Judith had a temper and could find fault with anything. The more I put up with, the easier her life would be.

Thinking of that, I turned and went into the kitchen, where the sink was piled with the night's pots and dishes, and the oily dipping bowls left from the hot pot.

I'd just pulled on my gloves when Judith called out from the living room.

"Hilda James, heat some milk for me. I can't fall asleep at night without something warm."

I answered her and took out the two bottles of imported fresh milk from the fridge, the ones Ken had bought specially for his mother.

I poured a glass and put it in the microwave. Judith took it, drank a sip, and frowned again.

"Too hot. All those years as a baby nurse and you can't even get the temperature right?"

Ken sat nearby, scrolling his phone, and dropped it in like an offhand reminder.

"Oh, right, Mom. From now on, before you eat anything from the fridge, give us a heads-up. That way, if something goes missing, we won't have this whole muddle again."

My hands paused over the dishes.

"I really didn't take anything else."

Ken didn't even look up, just gave a little smile.

"Nobody said you did. I'm only reminding you, out of kindness."

That shut me up completely.

Sabina came out of the bedroom, felt the mood was off, and her first move was to pull at me.

"Mom, hold your tongue, would you? My mother-in-law has a bad heart. Don't go working her up into an attack."

I looked at my own daughter and closed my eyes.

A moment ago my hands had been shaking from hunger and she hadn't asked a single word. Now Judith sat perfectly fine on the sofa drinking her milk, and it was Judith she worried about first.

The knot in my chest pulled tighter, and still I nodded.

"I understand."

Only then was Sabina satisfied. She fiddled with her phone for a bit, and then suddenly sent me a shopping link.

"Mom, the baby's almost out of formula. Remember to buy two boxes tomorrow."

I opened it and looked. One box was four hundred sixty-eight. Two boxes came to over nine hundred.

I was taken aback.

"Didn't we just buy three boxes last month?"

"Long gone."

Sabina frowned.

"The baby's growing. You're his grandma and you're going to grudge him this little bit of money?"

Ken chimed in from the side.

"Exactly, Mom. Your pension's so high, what's the harm in buying a few things for the baby?"

Judith added, unhurried,

"What do old folks keep all that money around for? In the end it all goes to the kids anyway."

I stared at my phone for a while, and in the end I still opened the payment page.

"All right. I'll buy it tomorrow."

Sabina broke into a smile at once.

"I knew Mom loved me best."

She hooked her arm through mine, as if nothing at all had just happened.

But all I could see was that half carton of yogurt in the trash.

I was so hungry.