As I stood to leave, she called out, pleading, "Sophie, can we talk?"

I stared at her, unsure what there was left to say. ‘Hadn't everything already been said and done?’

"We have nothing to talk about, Mother," I said firmly.

Looking back, I realized there was a difference in how I addressed my parents. Rachel and Benjamin called them "Mom" and "Dad," while I always used "Father" and "Mother"—formal and distant, without any warmth.

I ...