“You think rejecting me and making her feel as though she had to choose between us was a good thing? You cut her off for six months once you learned we’d eloped. It wasn’t until my mother told you I’d landed my first gallery showing that you finally called.”

“I don’t remember it that way,” she said, but even Tia could tell Lois was trying to cover for her past behavior.

“Well, I do,” Seth responded. “And that you’re so oblivious—or uncaring—of the damage you caused makes me resent it.”

“Any mother would be worried about her daughter getting involved with someone who...who has a criminal record,” Lois spat. “You tried to rob a bank, for goodness’ sake. You may think that’s nothing, but it’s not.”

“I never said it was nothing. But I was only thirteen when I got in trouble, and there were a lot of extenuating circumstances.”

“There’s no excuse for illegal behavior!” Lois insisted.

“I’m not excusing myself. I’m saying you didn’t even try to get to know me. Shiloh told you I wasn’t a bad person, but you thought I’d never amount to anything—”

“And if not for a little luck, we would’ve been right!” Lois yelled. “Just because people are stupid enough to pay you huge amounts of money for your so-called art doesn’t mean I don’t see it for what it is—garbage. That you’re now rich and famous doesn’t change who you really are.”

Tia’s hand flew to her mouth to cover her gasp. Those words were the sharpest of arrows, and she could only imagine how painful they were for Seth.

Once the echo of Lois’s outburst died away, silence ensued, and when Seth finally spoke, Tia could barely hear him. “You have some nerve denigrating my work and then asking me for the money it provides.”

“I—I didn’t mean anything against your work,” Lois said, trying to retrench. “I’m just saying...it’s not like you’re a brain surgeon or something. You’re no better than we are. We were just trying to take care of Shiloh as any good parents should!”

“I was taking care of her,” Seth bit out. “I would’ve died for her. That’s what you didn’t understand. We never asked you for anything, even when we didn’t know where our next meal would be coming from.”

“She would never have been at risk if not for you. You weren’t capable of taking care of her, and you proved it. If she had stayed in school, as we tried to convince her to do, she’d still be here,” she shouted and marched to the door, slamming it behind her.