“You know a portion. But you don’t know the whole story, Lauren.” She looked into Amelia’s eyes. “I know this is all really confusing, but if you give me a chance, I can explain everything to you.”

“We don’t have time,” Lauren said. “We’re on our way out of town on a sisters’ road trip. Trying to cram in time together to make up for all the years you took from us.”

“A road trip? That was your plan?” Whitney scrambled to put the pieces together in her mind. When she’d figured out it was Lauren who had Amelia, she’d imagined the plot was much more sinister. Some type of revenge scheme. Going to the police or turning Amelia against her. Then she thought about Amelia’s phone being off, the confusing items left in the house, Lauren pointedly calling Amelia “Millie” in front of her. Her gaze shot to Lauren. “You planted the journal entry of your mom’s in my room. The one she wrote about the night I OD’d.” Lauren nodded, and she took it as permission to continue. “And the photo of me and Millie on Amelia’s dresser.” Again, Lauren nodded. “You wanted me to find all of that once you and Amelia were out of town to hurt me. To make me think I’d lost my daughter. That she’d found out the truth and taken off.”

Lauren didn’t respond, but Whitney caught the twitch in the corner of her mouth. She was trying not to smile.

“The trip isn’t about you,” Amelia said. “Not everything is about you, Mom.”

“Then why turn off your phone? Why the elaborate plot of being dropped off at some elderly couple’s home?” She looked to Lauren again. She still couldn’t quite figure it out. “What were you hoping I’d do, Lauren?”

“I don’t know. Feel some remorse,” she said. “I’ve had to live with what you did my entire life. But when I met you and Amelia, it was clear that you weren’t suffering. You didn’t feel bad. You have everything you ever wanted. So, yeah, I guess I kinda wanted to take that away. Make you feel something. Anything, close to what I felt.”

Whitney knew Lauren was hurting. She couldn’t even imagine what Lauren’s life had been like. On the one hand, it made her so happy that she’d spared Amelia that life. But on the other hand, she felt bad for what Lauren had endured.