Grandmother Eileen stared at her as if she’d seen a ghost. “Where did that come from?”

Madison leaned back in her chair. Answering a question with a question wasn’t unusual for a Fielding. Actually, it was the modus operandi. But not for me anymore. “I lost everything when they died. Everything. And you made my life a living hell.”

Her grandmother hammered the empty glass on the desk. “You’re ungrateful! I took you in.”

“Ungrateful?” Madison grabbed the armrests of her chair until her knuckles turned white. “Do you have any idea how it was for me to grow up with you?”

“That’s enough. I don’t have to listen to this.”

“Try to image how it was for me. Just for a moment. You told me day in and day out what a disappointment I was to you and that Mom and Dad would still be fine if I hadn’t been born.”

Grandmother Eileen flinched. “What do you want from me? Do you want me to admit that I might have made mistakes? Fine. You think you’re the only one who lost someone?” With every word, her voice was getting louder until she was screaming. She stood and leaned with both hands on her desk. “He was my son!” Tears welled up in her eyes. “He was everything to me.”

“And to me,” Madison whispered. She took a deep breath and forced herself to keep eye contact. “But I was nothing to you.”

“I took care of you, didn’t I?”

“You really believe that, don’t you?”

Grandmother Eileen straightened. “Think of me in whatever way you want, but I took you in. I fed you, I dressed you, and I saw to your education.”

“But you didn’t give me a home!” Madison held her breath, shocked that she had shouted those words.

Grandmother Eileen blinked. Once, twice. Eventually, she lowered her gaze and said in a broken voice Madison had never heard her use before, “I gave you all I could.”

She didn’t know what to say to that. Why had she even started with this, and now of all times?

When the silence between them stretched, Madison stood. “With Sherry and Jake, I have a family and a home. I love them with all my heart.” When Grandmother Eileen looked at her as if she hadn’t understood a word, she added, “Love is important, you know?” She shook her head at her own words. “No. Love is everything.”

Grandmother Eileen stared at her, not moving an inch.

“I know you don’t understand me. Hell, I barely understand it myself. Don’t ask me why I brought all this up now.”