Cynthia POV.

“I had no idea you had so much contempt in your heart for me. I had truly missed you.”

Mom’s eyes had begun to water. Her mouth had stopped moving. She had paused chewing her food. Her frail frame looked bent like an age-old tree trunk at the end of its natural life. She appeared on the verge of an emotional breakdown.

Was it an act? Was it a ploy to invoke my sympathy? I could not ...