Chapter 16 - The Ripple Effect Across the Family
Word of my father walking out on Patrice didn't take long to travel through the grapevine of our extended family. By Thursday afternoon, my phone—though I had blocked the main instigators—began receiving frantic, bewildered messages from aunts and cousins who couldn't fathom how their carefully curated family ecosystem had imploded so completely in less than a week.
Cousin Diane, the one I had called on the night of the picnic, showed up at my front door on Thursday evening holding a casserole dish and a bottle of wine.
"Is it true?" Diane asked the moment I opened the door. "Did Uncle Gil actually pack a bag and leave Patrice?"
"It's true," I said, stepping aside to let her in. "He's staying at a motel off Route 35. He stopped by the clinic to tell me himself."
Diane dropped the casserole dish onto the kitchen island with a heavy thud and stared at me wide-eyed. "Patrice is losing her mind. Aunt Rey called me an hour ago sobbing because Patrice called her at six in the morning demanding she drive over and 'fix' my father. Rey told her she wouldn't get involved, and now Patrice has blocked half the family for not being loyal enough."
I couldn't help the small, ironic smile that touched my lips. "The empire is collapsing from the inside out."
"It's not just collapsing, Karen—it's imploding," Diane said, popping open the bottle of wine and pouring two glasses. "You have no idea what you started by standing up to her at that picnic. You didn't just protect Teo; you shattered the illusion. Everyone was too scared of her wrath to realize that her power only existed because people kept paying the toll."
Marlo walked into the kitchen just then, grabbing an apple from the bowl on the counter. She listened to Diane’s recap without a hint of surprise, leaning against the refrigerator with the calm assurance of someone who had known the truth all along.
"Grandma was never strong," Marlo remarked around a bite of apple. "She was just loud. Once you stop listening to the noise, she has nothing left."
Diane stared at my thirteen-year-old daughter in sheer awe. "Remind me never to get on your bad side, Marlo."
"Just don't insult my little brother," Marlo replied deadpan, earning a hearty laugh from both of us.
May you like
The atmosphere in our house was lighter than it had been in years. There was no walking on eggshells, no checking my phone with a knot in my stomach, no agonizing over whether I had forgotten to return a call or buy a gift. The toxic gravity that had anchored our lives to my mother's demands had finally been broken, and the universe was recalibrating around peace rather than control.
***
