“You already said yes,” Mom snapped. “Don’t embarrass me in front of everyone.” She had just announced to the entire family that I would babysit my brother’s three children over Christmas—even though I had already refused twice. Three weeks later, I was relaxing beside a pool in Nassau when my doorbell camera showed Mom pounding on my locked Denver apartment door with my brother, his wife, three kids, a portable crib, and a pile of suitcases behind her. / Chapter 4 / 10

Chapter 4 - The AftershocksMom recovered first. She usually did.

“Do you think this is funny?”

“No.”

“Three children are standing outside in the cold.”

“I can see that.”

“You need to fix this.”

There it was again. Fix this.

I watched the camera feed. Emma was staring seriously toward the lens, wearing the expression she always had when adults argued and she pretended not to listen. Oliver had begun kicking at a dirty patch of snow. Sky remained bundled against Stephanie. None of this was the children’s fault. So I kept my voice controlled.

“Jason and Stephanie need to take the kids home.”

Jason leaned toward the camera. “We can’t. Our cabin reservation starts today.”

“You live forty minutes away.”

“That’s not the point.”

Except it was exactly the point. They had a house. The children weren’t stranded. Nobody had been abandoned somewhere dangerous. They had simply arrived at a place where they had explicitly been told childcare would not be available and discovered that childcare was, in fact, unavailable.

Finally, Stephanie spoke. “Riley, Mom told us you were just being dramatic and that you’d calm down.”

I closed my eyes briefly. There it was. I had wondered why Stephanie’s response to my message had simply been “Okay.” She had believed me. Then Mom had apparently replaced my answer with her own again.

“I texted you directly.”

“I know.”

“And I said I would not be home.”

“I know, but your mom said—”

“Stephanie.” She stopped. “I’m not mad at you right now. But you had my answer in writing.”

Stephanie looked away. Jason rubbed his hands across his face.

Mom interrupted. “This is unbelievably selfish.”

“No. Selfish would have been agreeing to watch three children and then disappearing. I never agreed.”

“You knew they had plans.”

“Yes.”

“You knew they spent money.”

“Yes.”

“And you still left the country.”

“I told everyone before I booked anything that I was unavailable.”

Mom’s voice rose. “You booked a tropical vacation to prove a point.”

That wasn’t completely false. Maybe a small part of me had done exactly that at first. When I clicked the confirmation button, there had been something satisfying about imagining Mom finally realizing she couldn’t physically deposit three children inside my apartment. But sitting there in Nassau, I also knew I genuinely needed the trip. I hadn’t taken a proper vacation in almost three years.

“I booked a vacation because I wanted a vacation.”

Jason stepped closer. “So what are we supposed to do?”

I almost told him to figure it out. Instead, I answered calmly. “Go home. Call your cabin. Call a sitter. Stay with Mom. Those are all options.”

Mom immediately turned toward Jason. “You can stay at my place.”