「All I did was ask if Meg could stay here for a few days, and your wife threw a fit. She was smashing things, screaming at me, calling me every name in the book!」
「She even tried to fire me and throw us both out on the street! Murray, sweetheart, you know how hard things have been for me. Please don't let her fire me. I'm begging you on my knees.」
I heard Murray say:
「Don't worry, Aunt Eleanor. I'm not firing you. Put Sophia on the phone. Let me talk to her.」
Eleanor made a show of handing me the phone. Before my fingers even touched it, she hurled it at the floor.
And then she had the nerve to gasp：「Oh my God, why did you throw the phone?!」
The classic thief crying "thief." She played it like a pro.
Eleanor looked at me, triumph smeared across her face：「Murray said he's not firing me. He also said Meg is welcome to stay as long as she wants!」
I picked up the phone. The screen was shattered beyond use.
「This was a brand-new phone. Top-of-the-line. Ten thousand dollars. How are you planning to pay me back?」
「A crappy phone worth ten thousand dollars? What a scam! Besides, who saw me break it? Meg, did you see me break it?」
「I saw her throw it herself. She's trying to shake us down!」
「Fine. You want to play dirty? I'm calling the police.」
Eleanor's expression didn't waver：「Call them with what? Your phone's smashed. I'd love to see you try.」
I grabbed my coat and walked out the door.
The police station wasn't far. If I had to, I'd walk there myself.
Eleanor and Meg chased after me.
「You stop right there!」
They followed me into the elevator. Eleanor wouldn't stop running her mouth, her voice drilling into my ear the entire ride down.
「You're really calling the cops over something this petty? I should be the one filing a report for you trying to extort us! You're the one playing victim here!」
She grabbed my wrist and yanked：「Come on. We're going back upstairs.」
The elevator doors opened on the ground floor. I wrenched free of her grip.
They chased me out into the courtyard, where a group of older women happened to be on their evening walk, heading straight toward us.
Eleanor suddenly wailed behind me：「Sophia, I'm begging you! Are you not going to stop until you've driven me and my daughter to our graves?!」
The women rushed over to Eleanor immediately.
「Oh, Eleanor, honey, what happened to you?!」
I turned around. Eleanor and Meg were both on their knees behind me.
One of the women grabbed my arm：「Don't you walk away!」
「Eleanor, don't be scared. Tell us what's going on. We've got your back.」
Eleanor sobbed, snot and tears streaming down her face.
「Sophia didn't want Meg staying here, so she hit me and screamed at me and tried to fire me. Meg tried to protect me, and there was a little scuffle, and Sophia's phone fell and broke.」
「Now she's demanding we pay her a hundred thousand dollars, and if we don't, she'll call the police and have us thrown in jail!」
The women closed in around me.
「What kind of person are you? You already stole Meg's boyfriend. Now you want to fire her mother too? There's a limit to how rotten a person can be. Karma's going to catch up with you!」
「Exactly! Poor Eleanor has had it so hard. Her daughter was about to get married and this one swooped in and snatched the groom. And on top of that, Eleanor has to work as a maid for the other woman just to make ends meet, getting screamed at and smacked around every day. Now she's being extorted too!」
They crowded around me, all talking at once, flecks of spit landing on my face. My stomach turned.
「You don't know what you're talking about! I'm not the other woman!」
Eleanor stayed on her knees, refusing to get up：「Sophia, before you came along, Murray was my daughter's boyfriend!」
「You're the one who played your little tricks and forced him to marry you!」
