“Good night, Mom,” Toby murmured before heading back to the room he shared with his five year old sister, Lulu. I went back to gluing ribbons as if everything was perfectly fine until my phone began to vibrate with an incoming video call.
“Hey there, handsome,” I said with a tired smile as Jasper’s face filled the bright screen. He looked perfectly groomed and confident while sitting in the front seat of his expensive truck.
“I just wanted to know if you used the ivory or the charcoal table runners because my mother worries about the colors,” he said smoothly. I laughed softly and told him that I chose the charcoal runners so his mother could finally breathe easy.
“I knew I could count on you, but the signal is terrible here so I might lose you,” he added before the image froze. The screen went black, yet I realized the call did not actually end.
I heard the sound of a heavy car door slamming followed by the sharp voice of my future mother in law, Prudence. “Have you convinced her to sign those papers yet?” she asked with a tone that made my blood run cold.