She immediately started convincing him that I was “holding him back.” She shamed him for helping me and said:

— Why are you giving money to your mom? Let her work if she wants to eat.

— Stop dragging her around. You have your own family now.

She schemed, talked him out of visiting me. Told people I was “manipulating him,” though I was only calling occasionally to ask if he was okay.

Once I brought him a pie — she threw him out saying:

— Let her wash her hands from someone else’s kitchen before bringing food.

He grew colder. Every day I felt I was losing my son. And then — one morning — he said: