I don’t know how you deal with that woman. She is so submissive. It was a huge turnoff back then, but it’s a total nuisance nowadays.” My mouth goes slack. Did she actually just talk about my mother like that? The woman who invested more in her than in her own daughter? The woman who fought tooth and nail to bring her back? Who housed her? Who freaking jeopardized her relationship with my father and me—both of us guarded by nature—just to save her?
