She could have told him that motherhood was one long road of pain shouldered whenever it was possible, but she didn’t say things like that because she believed in smiling sacrifice. Her mother had never let her forget what Chris owed her, how it was her responsibility to make up for a lifetime of trauma and rejection. No sacrifice Lenora made was without price, all of it to be paid by her daughter. Chris didn’t feel that way—to her way of thinking, sacrifice went one way, and laying on the guilt wasn’t part of it.
