Umma used to tell me that she knows Ji-hyun and me better than anyone else. “I made both of you in my stomach and grew you for nine months,” she’d say. “I created every part of your bodies. No matter who you meet, no matter what you do, I will always know you and your sister best.” As a child, I thought this meant that my mother could read my mind. She knew when I was lying. She knew when I did bad things. But, as I grew older, I came to realize that this was one of Umma’s many untruths. She didn’t know what I was thinking or how I was feeling. If she did, she wouldn’t have acted this way. She
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