The relief I felt was enormous.
But once I knew she was going to be okay, my concern turned into something else.
Questions.
A lot of them.
Why had Dorothy disappeared?
Why had Alex been answering for her?
Why had she stopped letting me help?
And why had she allowed a young man she barely knew to move into her home?
I needed answers.
The Truth About Alex
Once Dorothy was settled, I finally confronted her.
“Dorothy, what’s really going on?”
She looked down.
Then she sighed.
“The messages were from Alex.”
I looked at him.
“You wrote them?”
Alex nodded.
“But Dorothy asked me to.”
That stopped me.
Dorothy explained that she had recently begun experiencing some private health difficulties.
Nothing she wanted to discuss in detail.
She was embarrassed.
She didn’t want me to see her struggling.
She didn’t want me to keep coming over and doing everything for her.
