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Back The Mother Next Door Save as PDF
Chapters (84)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. About the Author
  5. HALLOWEEN
  6. Seven Weeks Before Halloween
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. HALLOWEEN
  11. Six Weeks Before Halloween
  12. FOUR
  13. FIVE
  14. SIX
  15. HALLOWEEN
  16. Five Weeks Before Halloween
  17. SEVEN
  18. EIGHT
  19. HALLOWEEN
  20. NINE
  21. TEN
  22. HALLOWEEN
  23. ELEVEN
  24. TWELVE
  25. Twenty-Five Days Until Halloween
  26. THIRTEEN
  27. FOURTEEN
  28. HALLOWEEN
  29. FIFTEEN
  30. SIXTEEN
  31. SEVENTEEN
  32. EIGHTEEN
  33. NINETEEN
  34. TWENTY
  35. HALLOWEEN
  36. Eighteen Days Until Halloween
  37. TWENTY-ONE
  38. TWENTY-TWO
  39. HALLOWEEN
  40. TWENTY-THREE
  41. TWENTY-FOUR
  42. Eleven Days Until Halloween
  43. TWENTY-FIVE
  44. TWENTY-SIX
  45. Eight Days Until Halloween
  46. TWENTY-SEVEN
  47. TWENTY-EIGHT
  48. TWENTY-NINE
  49. HALLOWEEN
  50. THIRTY
  51. Four Days Until Halloween
  52. THIRTY-ONE
  53. HALLOWEEN
  54. THIRTY-TWO
  55. Two Days Until Halloween
  56. THIRTY-THREE
  57. The Night Before Halloween
  58. THIRTY-FOUR
  59. HALLOWEEN
  60. THIRTY-FIVE
  61. Halloween, Present Day
  62. THIRTY-SIX
  63. THIRTY-SEVEN
  64. HALLOWEEN
  65. THIRTY-EIGHT
  66. HALLOWEEN
  67. THIRTY-NINE
  68. HALLOWEEN
  69. FORTY
  70. HALLOWEEN
  71. FORTY-ONE
  72. FORTY-TWO
  73. FORTY-THREE
  74. FORTY-FOUR
  75. HALLOWEEN... NOW
  76. FORTY-FIVE
  77. Seven Months Later
  78. FORTY-SIX
  79. FORTY-SEVEN
  80. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  81. ALICE SWANSON’S
  82. Reader's Guide
  83. Questions for Discussion
  84. Booklist

“It’s okay,” Theresa said. “It seems like it was...complicated.”

Oh, girlfriend, if only you knew.

TWENTY-TWO

Theresa

I was showered and waiting for Lily when she came downstairs Wednesday morning, residual anger from the day before still rolling off me like fumes. After years and years of good behavior, it had only taken Lily a month and a half at her new school to get in trouble.

“What are you doing?” she asked, eyeing me suspiciously. She had her hair twisted up in a bun like Ellen wore hers. But who was I to judge about “borrowing” style? I’d taken to wearing hoop earrings and an ivy leaf pin everywhere. Maybe we were both chameleons, just desiring to fit in with our environment.

“I’m driving you the rest of this week,” I said. “Just to make sure you get there alright.”

I’d gotten the call yesterday afternoon from Adam that Lily was on the absentee list. It hadn’t been a great week to begin with, after I’d gotten locked in Alice’s horror shed and had to wait for what felt like an eternity to get her to answer her phone and let me out. And then Lily misbehaving. Skipping school when your stepfather was principal—that took pluck. With a generous helping of stupidity.

“You’re joking, right?” She was running late, as usual, pulling on her Converse sneakers while finishing the rest of a breakfast bar. She’d spent all of her time on the hairdo, no doubt. And the eye makeup.

“Nope. It’s either that or you can get up extra early and ride with Adam.”

She looked like she wanted to stab me with a nail file. Adam was naturally tuned to handle teenage emotions and whims, but I was not. He had slowly and systematically won Lily over when we’d started dating—giving her attention, but not trying to be her best friend. He’d ignored her rudeness when she pushed back, but didn’t let her steamroll him. I’d been furious with her on many occasions, but he’d approached it with a calm and grace and compassion that I lacked.

“It’s the lying that gets to me,” I said once we were in the car.

There was a time, not long ago, when Lily would’ve been mortified about lying to me. I still remembered her crafting me a three-page apology letter when she’d stuffed her Barbie in the trash because she’d burned the doll’s hair with my curling iron and hadn’t wanted to confess it.

“Ellen said that kids skip all the time and it isn’t a big deal.”

Sure, because Ellen doesn’t have a mother who cares about her. I wanted to snatch the thought back as soon as it came. It was unfair. I didn’t quite know what the situation was there, but it’s not like it was Ellen’s fault.