ortably. Trash overflowing. Empty bottles lined up across the counter. Red plastic cups scattered on the floor. Sticky rings on every surface. A half-eaten bowl of food sat abandoned on the coffee table, crusted over like it had been forgotten for days.
I walked into the living room.
And that’s when my heart truly sank.
Whatever Mandy had promised us… our home was no longer it.
The couch cushions were stained. Not a little. A lot. Darkened and blotchy. Blankets crumpled on the floor. A bowl of something half-eaten turning crusty on the coffee table.
Behind me, Lily whispered, “Mom?”
Little bits of glass glittered in the carpet.
I swallowed. “Yeah, baby?”
“Why does it look… gross?”
I didn’t answer.
I walked down the hall. Max’s door was open. His bedside lamp was on the floor, the base cracked in half, the bulb shattered.
Little bits of glass glittered in the carpet.
In Lily’s room, her stuffed animals were scattered. Drawers open. Her favorite blanket wadded up near the closet.
“Did we get robbed?”
This didn’t look like someone had “stayed over.”
It looked like the aftermath of a party. A big one.
Max stood in his doorway, staring at the broken lamp.
“Did we get robbed?” he asked quietly.
“No,” I said. My voice sounded flat. “Aunt Mandy stayed here, remember?”
His face crumpled. “She broke my stuff?”
“What happened here?”
Dave’s jaw was tight. “I’m calling her.”We walked back to the kitchen. I dialed Mandy and hit speaker.
She picked up on the third ring. “Heyyy,” she said. “You guys home?”
“What happened here?” I asked.
I tried to keep my voice steady. I don’t think I did.
A beat of silence. “What do you mean?”
She let out this irritated sigh.
“The house is trashed,” I said. “There are beer bottles everywhere. Trash everywhere. The kids’ rooms are messed with. Max’s lamp is broken.”
She let out this irritated sigh.
“I had Christmas,” she said. “You said I could stay.”
“You promised it would just be you,” I said. “No parties. No guests.”
She gave a little laugh. “You’re being dramatic. It’s not that bad. You’re super picky about cleanliness. I was going to come back and clean.”
“I’m going over there.”
“There is shattered glass in my kid’s carpet,” I snapped. “He could have stepped on it.”
“Okay, relax,” she said. “I can’t afford to replace a lamp right now. Renovations are killing me. It’s just stuff. The kids are fine.”
I hung up before I said something I couldn’t take back.
Dave stared at me. “I’m going over there,” he said.
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