It was time to make changes. And no doubt she’d pay a high price for that and life would be stressful for a while, but no matter how much unpleasantness her actions caused she wasn’t going to budge.

Fueled by anger and hurt, she drove to the school where she taught and arrived in the staff room just before the bell.

“One more day.” Her colleague Andrew was pouring hot water onto instant coffee. “The summer cannot come soon enough. You look stressed—everything okay?”

Everything was not okay, but she wasn’t going to say anything. She was upset, but that didn’t mean she was ready to discuss her teenagers in the staff room. Also, the conversation wouldn’t reflect well on her and she was already feeling like a bad mother without needing reinforcement from others.

“End of the school year. You know how it is.”

He probably had no idea how it was, but this was a staff room not a psychiatrist’s waiting room. Confessions weren’t appropriate.

He stirred sugar into his coffee. “You doing anything exciting this summer, Liza?”

Washing. Cleaning. Cooking. Organizing. Loading the dishwasher.

“Liza?”

She gave a start. “Sean is working on a big job right now, and then we’re going to France. You?”

“Jen and I are having two weeks touring the Greek Islands. First trip without the kids. Can’t wait.”

“You’re not taking the kids?” Liza decided she didn’t have time to wait for her coffee to cool, so she drank a glass of water instead.

“Phoebe has tennis camp, and Rory got a place on a youth orchestra so they’re both going to be away for the same two weeks. Jenny and I thought we’d make the most of it. Enjoy some couple time, you know?”

No, she didn’t know. But she’d dearly love to find out. But would that solve her problem? Maybe not. The truth was, she felt lonely. She didn’t feel close to her mother, she wasn’t close to the girls, and right now she didn’t feel close to her husband.

Andrew blew on his coffee. “Your girls doing anything this summer?”

“Two weeks of theater workshops but living at home.”

Hardly a holiday by any stretch of the imagination.

Andrew ate a chocolate chip cookie, even though it was technically still breakfast time. “You and Sean going away by yourselves?”

“No.” Even if she’d wanted to, how could they trust the girls after what had happened the last time? As it was, she was going to be doing favors for her neighbors for the rest of her life to compensate.

And she no longer had any confidence that the twins were capable of looking after themselves.