I was under anesthesia when it wore off too early. I couldn’t open my eyes, but I heard my son’s wife tell the surgeon: “If something goes wrong, don’t call her lawyer. Call me first.”

So I listened.

Vanessa spoke like royalty standing over a corpse. Daniel muttered weakly, “Maybe we shouldn’t—”

“Maybe you should remember who made you worth noticing,” she hissed. “Without your mother’s name, you’re just a man with expensive shoes and no backbone.”

Silence.

Then Daniel finally said, “Just keep it clean.”