Vanessa recovered quickly. She softened her expression and smiled. “You are home early,” she said warmly. “I was just helping your mother get up. She woke up sore again.”
Daniel stepped closer to his mother. “Are you all right?”
Eleanor opened her mouth to say yes, out of habit, out of fear. But when Daniel reached out to steady her, she flinched without meaning to.
He noticed.
“Why did you react like that?” he asked quietly.
Vanessa laughed lightly. “She startles easily. You know how sensitive she is.”
Daniel did not respond immediately. He knelt slightly so he could look at his mother’s face.
“Mom,” he said gently. “Tell me the truth. Are you hurt?”
Eleanor’s eyes filled with tears. She had protected her son for so long that the truth felt dangerous on her tongue. But something in his gaze told her that pretending would hurt more now.
“My back,” she whispered. “It hurts all the time. I cannot rest. She makes me clean. She says I owe it for living here.”
Daniel straightened slowly. “Vanessa,” he said. “Is that true?”
Vanessa’s smile faded. “She exaggerates,” she replied. “She does not understand how things work.”