Chapter 8: The Practical Middle
By the second week the household had settled into a thin, functional routine.
I cooked for myself and for Dylan and Sarah when they were present. Edward and Linda managed their own meals. The guest room remained the only space they controlled. Gabriella received one call from Edward requesting an extension on humanitarian grounds; she declined and directed him to the written notice. A locksmith changed the exterior code and the spare key arrangement so that only the original entry method I had provided remained active under my authority. Linda noticed the change and accused me of treating them like tenants. I corrected the record once: they were temporary occupants under a family courtesy that had been formally ended. Tenants would have had a lease. They had never been offered one.
