“Because she’s my mother,” she said. “I want to say goodbye to her. I’m afraid it might be my only chance, and it would hurt me forever to miss it. The way you love me is exactly the way I love her.” That made sense to me, of course. But it also defeated me, because the love I felt in that moment was as terrifying and hungry as any starved dog. It left no room for anyone else, not even for my own father. And if it was true that there was no room in my heart for him, then it must also be true that there was no room in hers for me. I understood at last why it was so easy for her to leave me.
