I took her to the train station and watched her board.
It wasn't that I didn't want her to stay. It was that this miserable excuse for a home didn't deserve another second of her presence.
After seeing her off, I came back to find the cleaners had already finished their deep sanitization.
Everything connected to my mother had been thrown away. Every last trace.
Cornelia stood with her hands on her hips, surveying the house room by room, then gave a satisfied nod.
"Much better. Now this place actually looks livable."
That night, I held my baby and listened to Seth snoring beside me. I didn't sleep at all.
The next morning, Cornelia knocked on my bedroom door.
I looked up. She stood in the doorway wearing an elaborate dress, barking orders like a queen addressing her servant.
"Prudence, I've been on vacation for a whole month and my skin is a wreck. Seth's going to drive me to a spa appointment. You stay home with the baby, make sure dinner's ready by the time we get back."
"Oh, and my suitcase is full of dirty clothes from the trip. Go through it and hand-wash everything."
"You're done with your postpartum recovery, so no more lounging around."