“You wanted proof,” I said.

She looked toward the brown suitcase by the hall.

“I wanted him to choose me over the house.

I kept thinking he’d correct things if I gave him time.”

She rested a hand on the locked box.

“The facility was when I stopped waiting for that.”

I did not tell her she should have acted sooner.

She already knew what the waiting had cost, and it had been her son she was hoping to recover.