long-term plan is.”

“My plan?”

“You’ve been at the same company for four years.”

“And I was promoted six weeks ago.”

“I know.”

“Do you?” Faye asked.

“Because when I told you, you said congratulations without looking up from your game.

Your mother asked whether the promotion was real management or just a nicer title.”

“That’s how she talks.”

“And this is how I leave.”

Marianne’s voice rose behind him.

“Tell her she’s proving my point.

Stable women don’t run away after one disagreement.”

Faye looked at the call screen.

Then she pressed the record button on Nora’s tablet and turned on the speaker.

“Marianne,” she said, “you’re close enough to hear me, so stop speaking through your son.”

There was a pause.

Then Marianne answered with the polished calm she used before saying something vicious.

“Fine.

I think you’ve been looking for an excuse to create drama.

Liam deserves a woman who supports his future instead of constantly making him feel inadequate.”

Faye almost laughed.

She had rewritten Liam’s résumé.

She had stayed up helping him prepare for interviews.

She had covered his share of rent when his company reduced his hours.

When he received his current job offer, she had taken him to dinner and paid for the suit he wore on his first day.

“What future have I failed to support?” Faye asked.

“You know exactly what I mean.”

“No.

Say it clearly.”

Marianne’s voice sharpened.

“A man needs someone who improves his position.

Not someone who makes him comfortable with mediocrity.”

Liam muttered, “Mom, stop.”

But Marianne had spent years speaking without consequences.

She continued.

“You don’t come from the same kind of family.

You don’t understand how important reputation is.

Liam has potential, and instead of pushing him, you’ve made yourself indispensable so he’ll be afraid to leave.”

Faye stared at the rain-dark window.

There it was.

The truth beneath every smile and question.

Marianne believed love was a competition for status.

She saw every act of care as manipulation because she could not imagine generosity without leverage.

Faye kept her voice even.

“Then you should be pleased.

I’m no longer indispensable.”

She ended the call.

The next morning, Liam appeared outside Nora’s building.

Faye saw him through the lobby glass, holding the scarf she had bought him at the coast.

His hair was uncombed, and dark shadows sat beneath his eyes.

Nora stood beside her.

“You don’t have to go out there.”

“I know.”

Faye stepped outside but remained behind the locked entry gate.

Liam approached it.

“You blocked me.”

“I asked you to communicate only about the apartment.”

“I needed to see you.”

“No.

You needed relief.”

He gripped the scarf in both hands.

“I’m sorry.”

Faye waited.

“I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Why did you?”

He looked toward the street.

“Mom had been talking about you again.

She said I’d become complacent.

She said you were controlling everything and that I’d lost ambition.”

“And you believed her.”

“I was confused.”

“You were comfortable.”

His face tightened.

“I love you.”

“You said that yesterday morning too.

Then you reminded me to take out the trash.”

“That’s not fair.”

“It’s what happened.”

Liam stepped closer to the gate.

“Come home.

We’ll set boundaries with my mother.”

“We?”

“I’ll talk to her.”

“You’ve had three