My mother collapsed in the snow carrying the steaks my husband had ordered her to buy. “Did she remember them?” Daniel asked when I called from the emergency room.

building was managed by my firm.

I knew every lease, repair, and document connected to it.

Daniel knew only that the basement had once flooded and that Mom disliked paperwork.

I forwarded the deck to my attorney and set the tablet down.

Outside the hospital window, snow covered the road.

By morning, the tracks would be visible.

Part 2

Mom was discharged before dawn.

I took her to my friend Leah’s apartment, where the heat worked and nobody expected her to cook.

Then I went home.

Daniel sat at the