Not because I was weak. Not because I had a soft heart. But because I knew sad stories very well. And because my whole life I had begged for maternal affection. While she… had tried to give it, but didn’t have me.

The house was far too quiet that night. But it wasn’t a bad silence, or an uncomfortable one. It was the silence that comes before something final.

Carly came down the stairs in pajamas, phone in hand. Her face was still swollen from fake crying. And tired from so many failed ...