2、
Marie Larson and Gilbert Pruitt started throwing punches.
Max Pruitt didn't have the decency to care. He pulled out his phone and started filming, grinning the whole time.
Glenda couldn't just sit there. She got up to pull them apart, and Marie, still enraged, turned on her and slapped her across the face a few times.
“You little tramp, Thomas paid every one of those fines. Don't tell me you didn't know your father was getting picked up for soliciting?”
“You knew and you didn't tell me? What kind of person does that?”
Marie shrieked at her.
Glenda held her cheek and shot me a vicious glare before saying, “Mom, did you forget why we came here? Can't the thing about Dad soliciting wait until we're home?”
Only then did Marie start to calm down. She rolled up a sleeve at me. “Thomas, you're rotten to the core. You set this up on purpose, didn't you, got us fighting?”
I said nothing. I walked over to the couch, sat down, and lit a cigarette.
Glenda quickly shot her family a warning look, then softened herself and came over to sit beside me.
She was as gentle as she'd always been, turning toward me, resting her hand on my leg, her voice going soft.
“Thomas, we've been married three years. We've always had something good between us. It's not like there's no feeling here.”
“But Thomas, if you really love me, you can't ruin the rest of my life, can you?”
“Cancer! It's a bottomless pit! Sell the house today to treat you, and once that money's gone, what then? Do we sell my parents' house too?”
I looked at her for a long moment. “But if you were the one with cancer, I'd do everything I could to get you treated. And my parents would agree to sell their house too.”
Because those were my mother's exact words. As long as Glenda didn't abandon me, she'd be willing to sell her own house to pay for Glenda's treatment.
Marie sneered from where she sat. “Anyone can say that. You're the one with cancer, so of course your mom talks a pretty game.”
Gilbert let out a cold snort. “We know how tightfisted your parents are. Your dad quit smoking and drinking when he was young just to save money. That cheap, and they'd pay to treat my daughter?”
Max sat with one leg crossed over the other, lighting up a cigarette and puffing away. “Thomas, quit wasting your breath. My sister's divorcing you, that's for sure.”
I ignored all of them and looked at Glenda. “So you really don't intend to stand by me?”
Glenda was getting impatient.
“How am I supposed to stand by you?”
“Go ask around. How do cancer fights end?”
“The money's gone, the person's dead, and the one still living wishes they weren't!”
“Thomas, you can't be this selfish!”
I took a drag, tapped the ash into the tray without hurrying, and said with a smile, “I want to live, and that makes me selfish? Glenda, if you were the one with cancer, I wouldn't let you give up. I'd face it with you.”
Glenda's face twisted into a look of pure contempt. “Thomas, don't make yourself out to be some saint. After all, I'm not the one with cancer!”
She paused, then said, hard and final, “And even if I did get cancer, I wouldn't be that selfish. I'd put on a beautiful face of makeup, find some spot with nobody around and a good view, and end my own life.”
When I heard that, I couldn't help but laugh out loud. “Remember you said that.”
