“When I found out that he had wasted all his scholarship money, I …” She gets up now and starts to pace in front of me. “I was so pissed and angry, and to top it all off, we got kicked out of the house.” I sit here now and rage tears through my body, making my legs start to move up and down. “He promised me everything would be okay. We moved into a one-bedroom studio that was horrible. There were roaches everywhere, and I was afraid that I’d wake up, and they’d be all over Dylan. He didn’t pay rent, and one day I caught him fucking the landlady on our couch. I got tested right after that, and I never touched him again.”

“Stop,” I say, my heart sinking, my stomach burning. “I don’t know if I can take much more.”

“This is me.” She stands there with her arms out to her sides. “You wanted this. You asked for it. I told you that we shouldn’t go there. We are so different.” She looks down, and I see a single tear roll down her cheek. “There were drug dealers breaking down my door to get him. There were times I came home, and the money that I had set aside to buy food with was in a syringe and his eyes closed on the couch. We ate bread for a month with peanut butter. I went to the church and asked for help with food, and we got food stamps. It took me over a year to finally save enough to escape him.” She looks up now, her shoulders square.

“But before I left, he gave me one last gift.” I wait for it, holding my breath. If he hurt her or put his hands on her, I’ll kill him. “He gave me the credit cards he had opened in my name. I was in debt to the tune of fifty-seven thousand dollars. I had a three-year-old, and I was making seven fifty an hour.” She puts her hands together. “So when I said you and I are night and day, I was not lying. I have worked hard to get myself where I am today, and every single hurdle that is thrown at me, I have somehow climbed over it.” She smirks.

“Yes, I have bumps and bruises and scrapes, and I have nothing in my retirement fund, and the only thing I can afford is the bare minimum, but”—she takes a deep breath—“I will never let Dylan live one day thinking that any of this is his fault. He asked about his grandparents once, and I said they lived too far. When he’s old enough, I’ll tell him the truth, but hopefully, his life is going to be filled with so much love in his heart that he won’t even care.”