I stared at her.
There was pain there. Real pain.
For the first time, I saw that my mother had not simply been guarding stolen money or hidden influence. She had been guarding a version of Track Pregnancy
the past where she was the only injured person.
“Mom,” I said slowly, “what did Dad promise?”Get Parenting Tips
Her eyes shone, but she refused to let tears fall.
“He promised that family came first.”
Emma lowered the letter.
“And was my mother family?”
The question was quiet.
It landed harder than anger.
Margaret looked at her then. Really looked at her. Not as the daughter-in-law she had diminished, not as an inconvenience, not as a threat in a cardigan with dishwater-red hands.
As Clara’s daughter.
Something in my mother’s face flickered.Track Pregnancy
Then it vanished.
“I don’t know what your mother was to him,” Margaret said.
