“Changed?” “I’d learned what she wanted me to be. I learned to pretend. So I wouldn’t be sent to that place. I learned what it would take for my mother to love me. But—” Ruth raised her hands, then dropped them back. One to her lap, the other to rest gently, protectively, on Rosa. “That was a long time ago.” “My mother isn’t finished with me yet,” he said and saw her smile. Just a little. “Probably true.”
