"Mom, none of this is your fault." I frowned at her injuries. "But you're hurt so badly. What happened?"

"Compared to your grandmother's passing, these are just minor wounds."

Mom dismissed her injuries and sighed with guilt. "I keep thinking if I hadn't held that party, they wouldn't have had the opportunity, and you and your grandmother wouldn't have..."

"Mom!" I firmly interrupted, wiping her tears. "Whether you held that party or not, they were working in the shadows ...