She hoped the older woman would soften up once the new baby arrived. However, as the months passed, the tension stopped being just uncomfortable and started to feel truly dangerous.
The house sat in a quiet neighborhood where people swept their porches every morning. Everyone knew who came and went from the Higgins residence throughout the day.
Wesley had inherited the property jointly with his mother after his father passed away several years ago. Out of a sense of duty or perhaps just old habit, he had never set any firm boundaries with her.
Even though Wesley paid for the electricity, the food, and Cassandra’s expensive prenatal vitamins, Edith insisted it was still her house. The situation became much worse when Wesley had to leave for three weeks to work on a large project in a neighboring state.
In the beginning, the problems were small and petty. Edith would count the yogurts in the fridge and inspect the pantry with a judgmental eye.
She frequently entered the master bedroom under the pretext of looking for laundry that didn’t even belong to her. She would open drawers, sniff Cassandra’s lotions, and rearrange personal items to suit her own preferences.