“Hello, Emily, can you come over? I’m not feeling well,” the old woman murmured into the phone, her voice trembling.
“Again? Those two left the boy with you, didnt they?” Emilys tone sharpened with frustration. “Ill be there shortly, Mum.”
Within half an hour, Emily arrived at her mothers cottage in Kent. The weight of her mothers exhaustion was plainher blood pressure had risen, her head pounded like a drum.
“Shall I call a doctor?” Emily asked, pressing a cool cloth to her mothers forehead.
“No need. Just a bit of rest. But little Oliver wont let me bejumping about, getting into everything.”
Emily guided the toddler to the other room, her jaw tight. “Leaving a child with an ailing great-grandmother” she muttered. “Nothing but pubs and parties on their minds.”
An hour later, her son, Thomas, and his wife, Lucy, stumbled in, the stench of ale clinging to them.
“Thomas, your grandmother was ill, and you couldnt even answer your phone! How could you leave Oliver with her again?”
“Mum, dont fuss! Grans tougher than an old oakalways exaggerating.”
“Have you no shame? You moved into her home, and now you burden her like this?”
“Well, its not as though youll buy us a flat, is it? Where else will we live?”
“Perhaps if you found proper work! Olivers old enough for nursery. Stop this nonsense of ‘influencing’the internets crawling with your sort!”
“Its not nonsense!” Lucy cut in, her words slurred. “Our channels about to take offjust wait for the sponsorships!”
Emily scoffed. “You wed because Lucy fell pregnant, and now you blame everyone but yourselves?”
“Oi, I told her to be careful!” Thomas shot back.
“Enough!” Emily snapped. “Your drunken bickering is unbearable.”
She checked on her mothersleeping at last, the medicine working. “Keep quiet. Shes resting.”
The troubles had begun when Lucy announced her pregnancy. A rushed wedding followedsimple, with only close family.
When Thomas suggested moving in with Gran, Emily had protested. “Youll turn her home upside down!”
But Gran, soft-hearted, relented. “Theyll only stay until theyre on their feet.”
Yet weeks passed, and Thomas idled while Lucy filmed senseless clips. They dumped Oliver on Gran daily, claiming they were “building their brand.”
Then came the betrayal.
“Emily, did you know your mothers gone viral?” a colleague asked one afternoon.
“What?”
“Thomas films herasks absurd questions, mocks her answers. The comments are horrified. Hes exploiting her!”
Emily stormed out, dialling Thomas with shaking hands.
“Why are you humiliating Gran online?”
“Its content, Mum! Shes helping us grow!”
“Delete those videos, or youll find yourselves homeless!”
Thomas laughed. “Grans flat will be mine soon enough. Shes not long for this world, is she?”
The cruelty stole Emilys breath.
Two weeks later, Gran collapsed. The paramedics arrived too late.
At the funeral, Thomas weptperhaps genuinely. “She signed the flat over to me,” he admitted after. “Her choice.”
Emilys heart ached, but she stayed silent. Grans will was done.
Days later, returning for Grans belongings, Emily overheard Lucy gloating on the phone:
“Finally! That old crones gone. I delayed calling the ambulancegave her the wrong pills. Now the flats ours!”
Emily burst in, rage burning. “You killed her!”
Lucy smirked. “Prove it. BesidesOliver isnt even Thomass.”
When confronted, Thomas crumpled. He deleted his channel, took a job, and divorced Lucy.
In time, he remarrieda kind woman, nothing like Lucy.
Emily watched, relieved, as her son finally grew up.
