I take a deep breath and go to leave, but then hear her, "Lucy?"
I sit on the edge of the bed and smooth her hair back gently.
“Hey, Mom,” I whisper. “I’m home.”
Relief eases the tension in her face immediately. Then guilt follows, like it always does.
“I’m sorry,” she murmurs. “I tried to wait up.”
“You don’t have to be sorry,” I say automatically. “I am late tonight.”
She smiles weakly. “You've been working late often.”
The guilt surges that I haven't been here enough. But I know that I cannot be here and make enough money to pay foreverything. So I push forward.
“I had a really good meeting,” I tell her. “For a fundraiser. One that matters.”
“That’s good,” she says, eyes closing again. “You deserve good things.”
The words mean more than she knows.
Her breathing steadies and deepens.
I check her pill organizer, make sure tomorrow’s morning meds are ready, then adjust the heating pad at her lower back just enough to ease the tension without waking her.
Years of practice.
I step back out and close the door partway.
Em watches me from the couch.
“She was pretty bad earlier,” she says quietly. “But the meds helped.”
I nod. “Thank you for staying with her.”
“She’s our mom, where else would I be?” Em replies, like that should explain everything.
I sink down beside her, exhaustion finally settling into my bones.
“I swear,” Em says suddenly, her voice fierce, “when I’m done with school, I am going to be the one taking care of you.”
I smile tiredly. “That’s not your job.”
“Yes, it is,” she insists. “You’ve been doing everything forever. When this is all over, it’s my turn.”
I look at her, really look at her. At the resolve in her eyes. The way she’s already stronger than she realizes.
“Finish school,” I say, voice low. “Become the doctor you want to be. That’s all I need.”
“I will,” she says. “I’m doing this for us.”
That almost breaks me.
We sit there together, quiet and close, the apartment humming around us. The comfort we’ve built out of very little. The safety we fight for every day.
This is my real life.
Not the restaurant.
