“Mom,” I said, before she could speak. “This is Mr. Adeyemi. He’s a process server, and he’s been waiting for you.” The locksmith, sensing something had gone very wrong, lowered his drill and looked between us. My mother’s confident expression flickered. “What is this, Renata?” Mr. Adeyemi stepped forward and handed her a thin stack of stapled papers. “You’ve been served,” he said simply. “A restraining order and a formal cease-and-desist regarding entry to this property. There’s also notice of a civil claim for the attempted unauthorized changing of the locks, which your locksmith just became a witness to.”

The color drained from her face the way it had drained from Colette’s two days earlier. She turned to the locksmith, but he was already packing his tools, muttering that he wanted no part of a dispute and that she had told him this was her own house. He left without charging her, the door clicking shut behind him. My mother stood alone in my entryway, holding papers she could not minimize, could not dismiss, could not sigh her way out of. For the first time in my life, she had nothing to say.

“You changed the locks yourself,” she finally whispered, understanding at last. “Yesterday morning,” I confirmed. “And I filed everything the same afternoon. I knew you’d come back. You always come back when someone tells you no.” Her hands trembled around the folder. “I’m your mother.” “You are,” I agreed. “And I still love you. But loving you doesn’t mean handing you my house, my peace, and my boundaries so you can give them to Colette. That’s over now.”

She left without another word, the restraining order clutched to her chest, her plan collapsing behind her like the walls she had always assumed she could walk through. I locked the new deadbolt and leaned against the door, breathing slowly. My phone buzzed. It was Marisol. “Did she come back?” she asked. “She did,” I said, and I smiled for the first time in days. “But this time the house was ready for her. And so was I.” I never heard the scrape of a key in my lock again.