Chapter 4

The day Grandma was discharged, twenty banquet tables were set out downstairs at the old house for her birthday.

I had ordered the food. I had paid the deposit.

But the banner overhead read differently.

【Devoted Grandson Hudson Pruitt: Eight Years Guarding His Paralyzed Grandmother.】

I had just helped Grandma out of the car when Hudson snatched the wheelchair away.

"The cameras are rolling. Step aside."

He wheeled her down the red carpet while applause broke out below. On the big screen, the tribute video began to play.

Hudson holding a cup to her lips. April rubbing her legs. My mother wiping her face. Every shot lasted only a dozen seconds. Then the picture cut to me, throwing myself over Grandma as she fell down the steps.

They had cut out pulling the catheter, stopping her medication, forcing her to stand. All that was left was the image of me pinning her down on the ground.

The caption read: 【Long-term caregiver loses control, deliberately harms elderly woman.】 The crowd erupted into curses.

My father took the microphone and sighed.

"All these years Freda has been skimming Grandma's eldercare money, and now she's abusing her. We can't keep covering for her."

My mother brought over an ink pad and three documents.

An apology for stealing the eldercare funds.

A statement giving up the old house and any relocation benefits.

An admission that Hudson was the only person supporting Grandma.

"Just sign. The Anthem executives are here today. Don't wreck things for your father and your brother. Admit your mistake, and your mother can still leave a bowl of rice on the table for you."

I flipped through the pages.

"And if I don't sign?"

April went straight upstairs with a few people and threw my clothes, my laptop, and my folding cot out into the rain.

The cardboard box hit the standing water and burst, scattering Grandma's medical records and eight years of my handwritten notes across the ground. The pages soaked up the muddy water, the ink bleeding out line by line. My laptop hit the pavement, the case splitting open.

I rushed to catch them. Hudson blocked me.

"From today on, this is the Pruitt house. Thieves aren't welcome."

Rain soaked through the gauze on my forehead, and the scabbed-over cut on my palm split open again, blood sliding off my fingertips into the mud.

Behind me came the sharp knock of a wheelchair against the ground. With the one hand she could still move, Grandma slapped hard at the armrest.

"The house is Freda's! Get out, all of you!"

My mother bent down to soothe her.

"Once Hudson's in at Anthem, we'll be able to move into a brand-new eldercare home."

Grandma shook all over with rage, but my mother had already turned to go greet the executives from Anthem.

Hudson pulled out a gilded offer letter and patted my cheek with it.

"Regional manager at the Anthem Care Group, conditional offer. Four hundred grand a year, running the whole district."

His eyes swept over the medical records in the mud.

"So you can wipe an old woman down. So what? From now on, if you ever want to pick up a single caregiving job, you go through me first."

"Someone like you will never get into our company. Not in your whole life."

The whole scene went quiet.

More than a dozen black company cars pulled up along the road, and the Anthem Care Group project team came walking over under umbrellas.

My father hurried up to them clutching the bid packet.

"Sir, this is the proposal from our Ken Pruitt Renovation Crew. A thirty-million renovation project. No one has more experience than we do."

Rain ran down the edge of the packet, and the cover showed the words 《Accessible-Home Renovation Proposal for Aging Communities》.

Not even the font, the color scheme, or the page numbers had been changed.

It was the proposal I had spent four months on, working late into the night. The same file that had disappeared from my laptop along with the caregiving journals.

My father was still selling it eagerly.

"I designed this myself, based on eight years of experience caring for a paralyzed elder."

Hudson shoved his way in too.

"I'm the newly hired regional manager. We'll be colleagues from now on."

April held out a business plan.

"The promotion contract is already in final review. I planned today's whole tribute event myself."

The general manager didn't take anyone's materials.

He walked past Hudson, stepped into the standing water, and came straight to me.

His assistant picked up my laptop, and the project lead held the umbrella over Grandma.

The general manager pulled out the chair at the head of the table with his own hands.

"Chairwoman Pruitt, traffic was bad. Sorry we're late."