She did not argue.

She simply nodded, and let me help her up, because she no longer had the strength to fight me — and my mother had never, in her life, been too weak to fight.

Chapter 5 — The Clinic

I drove her to a private clinic in Coral Gables — one of those quiet medical centers with beige walls and the sharp clean smell of antiseptic and a receptionist who speaks in a hush, because everyone who comes through those doors is afraid of something.

The nurse took my mother’s blood pressure.

Then she frowned, and took it again.