“This is serious,” she snapped, feeling tightness in her chest as different emotions struggled for dominance. “I know what it’s like to be trapped by a parent. My folks were great to me, but in order to live with them, after I had Cooper, I had to follow their rules. There was school and homework and taking care of him and going to my part-time job and nothing else. I never had a life and while I know they were trying to teach me a lesson, a lot of the time their actions felt vindictive and cruel. Every second of every day was spent making sure I remembered how I’d screwed up.”

She felt her temper rising. “After we graduated, you were gone. You don’t know what I went through. I’m not saying I shouldn’t have taken responsibility for my kid, but there was never a break. While I appreciate the support, I resented the hell out of them. When I finally got my teaching credential, it took me six months to save enough to move out into my own apartment. Coop and I were dirt-poor, but I didn’t care. I was finally free of them. I never want him to feel that way about me.”

Restless, she sprang to her feet and began pacing the length of the room. “I love my folks. I do, but there were times when I hated them.” She glared at Unity. “I don’t want Cooper to hate me.”

“He doesn’t.” Unity still looked amused. “You’re blowing this out of proportion.”

“No, I’m not. Don’t you get it? My parents aren’t bad people, but for them, the rules were more important than their only child. Since they’ve moved away, I talk to them every few months and that’s it. How much of that is because of their stupid rules? They were wrong in how they treated me and I never wanted to be that person with Cooper.”

“Ellen, you’re not,” Unity told her. “Cooper’s fine. You know he is. He adores you and he’s a really good guy. Just sit down and talk to him about all this.”

“And say what? That I have life? I don’t. I figured that out in the middle of the night.” Ellen looked at her. “I have school and you and Cooper and that’s it. I don’t have any hobbies. I don’t date. God knows I haven’t had sex since I was a teenager. I resented how my parents made me live and yet here I am, seventeen years later, still following their rules. Living the life they told me to live, even though I hated it.”

Unity reached for her sandwich and took a bite. “So change.”

The casual words felt like a slap across the face.

“That’s it?” Ellen asked bitterly. “That’s your advice? Change? How is that helpful? How does that show any understanding of the problem? How would you have liked it if when you called me to tell me Stuart was gone that I had told you to get over it?”