“I tried to pay off the bills, but whenever I got ahead, Andrew would come around, and well, he would take and steal, and he just kept pushing me down. I moved six times and tried not to let him find me, but when you have a low income, there are only certain places you can rent, and he knew them all. I know that I’m not what you wanted for your son. I know that you want someone who doesn’t have all this baggage and problems. You guys have a family that people dream about. You love and support each other, and when push comes to shove, you guys go to war for each other, and well, then you have me. It’s just me and Dylan, just the two of us.” I cry now. “But I love him so, so much. I didn’t think I could love someone this much. I wanted to run and give him a chance to find someone better.” I look down. “You protect the ones you love. And I love him with everything I have to give, which isn’t much.”

“But to him, it’s everything,” Parker says. “I’m not going to lie to you. We were scared for him. Andrew is not stable, and that has nothing to do with you. But as a mom …”

“You want your kids safe no matter how old they are,” I fill in for her. “I can’t walk away from him.” I shake my head. “But I don’t want him to have to choose between me and his family.”

“He won’t have to choose.” Parker now comes to me and takes me in her arms. I sob when she hugs me. “He’ll never have to choose. You and Dylan are a part of him, and my boys know what they want.”

“He’s stubborn,” I say, laughing. “And annoying.”

“Oh, honey, it’s going to get so much worse.” She laughs. I step away from her and go to the bathroom, grabbing some toilet paper for us.

“He almost forbade me from going to work today,” I say, and she laughs when she dabs her eyes. “Which is even more annoying, since he was right.”

“If you tell them I said this next part, I will deny it,” she says and leans in. “They usually are.”

“Then he offered me a job with his foundation.” I shake my head. “Which I’m going to have to take now since I need a job.”

“He’s going to be so happy,” she says, and I nod.

“I have one more stop before I go to him and one, accept the job, and then two, yell at him for not telling me about getting suspended.”