‘I get that,’ Elsie said, guilt washing over her. ‘I know you’ve given up your life to care for me. Which is why things need to change. If you just help me …’ She heaved a sigh. She needed to make him understand. ‘When I eat, everything else fades away. All my thoughts … they disappear. It’s the only time I’m happy. But it’s killing me too.’ She looked around the room. She hadn’t set foot outside these four walls in well over a year. ‘I have two thrones. My bed and my toilet seat. That’s as far as it goes. I move my ass from one to the other all day, and even that causes me pain.’ Her hand fell to her constant companion, and she rhythmically stroked her cat. ‘I haven’t been outside since Lord knows when, and before you say it, yes, I know that’s my fault.’ She glanced to check for his understanding. ‘My world is very small compared to yours, Christian, so please don’t look at me like that, this is important. The doctor told me, plain and straight. I’ll die if I don’t sort myself out.’ She swiped away her fringe, which was stuck to her forehead with sweat. She didn’t want to feel this way anymore.

‘I don’t want you to die, Mom.’ The look on Christian’s face relayed sympathy. ‘But I’m tired of getting my hopes up. We go through a few weeks of hell, then it’s back to square one, only this time, you’re bigger than before.’ It was true. Each time Elsie lost weight, she found it impossible to keep it off.

‘Well, don’t hold back there, son …’ Elsie said in a quiet voice, tears forming in her eyes. ‘Have you ever stopped to wonder why I turned out this way?’

Doctor Costello had raised the question as he talked through her options. The young man had been so kind, he had just about melted her heart. But she could not discuss the real reasons for her compulsion. It was too horrific for anyone to comprehend, let alone her own son. To know he was the product of such darkness … it would be the end of him. She repressed the thought, scared he would see it on her face.

‘Maybe I could shop online, order in the food myself … if you’ll show me how.’ Her parents had disapproved of computers – the devil’s work, according to her father. Then again, according to Papa Abraham, there were few things in the modern world that weren’t. These days, she used her laptop mainly for leaving Amazon and Goodreads book reviews.