Joe returns home with his fiancée Emily after placing his mother, Nora, in a nursing home. To his shock, his belongings are dumped outside, and a new family is moving in. The man at the door informs him that Nora sold the house—her own son had no idea. Emily is furious, calls Joe a fool, and storms off—revealing there was no baby and she was never really in love. Devastated,
Joe finds a letter from his mother hidden in a box. In it, Nora explains that she had no choice but to act. After overhearing Emily call her a “thorn” and plot to manipulate Joe into sending her away, Nora realized she had to protect her son from being used. Joe had been blind to it all—even when he saw Emily at a café kissing another man,
