After dinner, Leo climbed into my lap with his stuffed lion.
“Mommy?”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“If I get sick again, will you stay with me?”
The question pierced my heart.
I brushed his hair away from his forehead.
“Always.”
He studied my face.
“Even if there’s a big party?”
David stopped washing the dishes.
Chloe lowered her fork.
I pulled Leo closer.
“Especially if there’s a big party.”
He smiled, satisfied.
Then he rested his head against my chest.
I looked across the table at David and Chloe.
For the first time in my life, I wasn’t afraid of disappointing Eleanor Vance.
I had disappointed her completely.
And I had finally become the mother, wife, sister, and woman I wanted to be.
My mother had threatened to erase me from her family if I refused to abandon my son.
She never understood that her threat was the permission I had been waiting for.
