Chapter 2

I told Loretta to take Tammy and go.

Loretta nodded right away and lowered her head to get Tammy's backpack. "Of course. Vera, I'm the one who owes you. I won't come here again."

The more she acted this way, the more it tore at my mother's heart.

Loretta had barely reached the door when my mother snatched the backpack back. "Where does she think she's going? Tammy takes her SATs next year. She's lived here for eight years. You want her to go rent some apartment with you now?"

"She has a mother."

"She's a child I raised, too." My mother pulled Tammy to her side. "What happened back then was Loretta's doing, not Tammy's. You can't hate a five-year-old all the way until she's fifteen."

"I don't hate her." I looked at Percy. "I just want her to stop living in Scarlett's room, and to stop calling my husband 'Dad.'"

Percy was quiet for a moment. "The room can be changed. The way she addresses me can change gradually. Don't push everything to the breaking point all at once."

I asked, "Why does it have to be gradual?"

He didn't answer.

I asked again, "Loretta's been out of prison for seven years. Tammy has a mother. Why do you still have to be her father?"

Percy stayed silent for a long while before he said, "Because I've watched her grow up over these eight years. Vera, people aren't objects. You can't just cut them off the moment you decide to."

My nose stung all at once.

"And Scarlett?"

His face changed. "Don't do this."

"Don't do what? My daughter is dead, and you go to parent-teacher conferences, pay tuition, and celebrate birthdays for the daughter of the woman who killed her. Now she calls you 'Dad,' and you're telling me to stop?"

Percy looked a little cornered by what I'd said, and raised a hand to rub the space between his brows. "I haven't forgotten Scarlett. But she's gone. We have to move forward eventually."

As if she'd finally been waiting for exactly this, my mother jumped in at once. "Percy has done right by you all these years. After Scarlett was gone, he stayed by your side so long. And then you were hurt so badly you can never have another child in this life. Can't he even be allowed to love Tammy?"

The living room went dead silent.

I looked at my mother.

"Why can't I have another child? Have you forgotten?"

Her lips moved, but no words came out.

Ten years ago, Loretta killed Scarlett, and had my uterus removed, too.

And now her daughter, because I can never have a child again, had become the "daughter" my husband spoke of.

I looked at Percy. "Starting today, you cut all ties with them. We go back to Harbor City and live the way we used to."

I really was still waiting for him to nod.

But he was quiet a long time, and only said, "Tammy has her SATs next year."

"So?"

"Losing her grandmother and me all of a sudden right now — she couldn't take it."

Suddenly I didn't know what else there was to say.

Loretta had been crying the whole time, and when she heard this she suddenly dropped to her knees. "Vera, you can hate me all you want, but don't hurt Tammy. It was my choice back then. She knew nothing about any of it."

My head snapped toward her.

"What choice?"

Loretta froze.

My mother's head jerked up to look at her, too.

Something in me sank.

Loretta seemed to finally realize she'd let something slip, and her face went deathly pale. Percy stepped forward to try to smooth it over, but I kept my eyes locked hard on her. "Didn't you say Scarlett's life vest came loose on its own? The 'choice' you just mentioned — what did you mean by it?"

No one answered.

After a long time, Loretta finally spoke through her tears. "Tammy's life vest was broken at the time. I couldn't hold on to both children by myself."

My fingers curled tighter and tighter.

"And so?"

She closed her eyes.

"I took the one Scarlett was wearing off of her and gave it to Tammy."

There was a buzzing in my ears.

What chilled me even more was that neither my mother nor Percy showed the slightest shock.

They had known all along.