I sat on the bed and took her favorite stuffed animal onto my lap—a raggedy bear she’d slept with since she was a baby. I hadn’t seen it in a while. “You don’t like it here anymore?”

“No.” She began shoving cosmetics into a makeup case on her dresser.

I sighed. “Then I guess I’ll have to pack too.”

“Where are you going?”

“Wherever you go. I can’t live without my Whitney. And we’ll have to bring Keaton too—I need both my babies.”

“Why? You don’t love us.”

Even though I knew it was her anger and fear talking, the words hurt. I forced myself to see beyond them. “Of course I do.”

She whirled around, fresh tears running down her face. “Then why are you doing this to us?”

“Doing what, honey?”

“Just what Daddy did!”

“Whitney, I’m not. I promise.”

“Why should I believe a word you say?” she asked, wiping beneath her eyes, smearing the dark eye makeup so that it looked like tire tracks across her face. “I asked you if you were dating him and you said no.”

“Because we aren’t dating, not exactly,” I said, heat rushing my face.

“Please, Mom. I saw you dancing with him. I saw you kissing him. You’re not just friends.”

“Well, sometimes friends—”

She put her hands over her ears. “Stop lying to me! That’s just what Daddy did!”

“Okay, okay.” I held up my hands. “I’ll be honest. Henry and I have feelings for each other. We’d . . . we’d like to be more than friends.”

“I knew it!” she yelled, shaking her head. “You think I’m stupid, but I’m not. I know how this works. You fall in love with Henry, and then he’ll take you away from us. You’ll want to get married and have his baby, and then you’ll realize you don’t need us anymore.”

“Oh, honey, that’s not true.” I stood up and moved toward her, but she ducked out of the way—to my recollection, the first time she’d ever rejected my attempt at affection. A lump of sadness and self-loathing lodged in my throat. “Please, sweetheart. Come here.”

“No!” she cried. “You’ll just hug me and tell me you understand, but you don’t. Your parents are still together. Your house is still your house. You can come back here any time you want and everything is the same. You and Daddy took all that away from me. My entire life was just gone one day, and I can never get it back!”