Mom froze.
I nearly dropped the glass I was holding.
“Coming back where?” Mom asked.
“Home.”
There was something in my aunt’s voice that made my stomach twist.
“Your father has been trying to reach me for days,” Mom continued. “He wants me to convince you to meet him.”
Mom laughed.
It wasn’t a happy laugh.
It was the kind of laugh you make when something is so unbelievable that your brain doesn’t know how else to react.
“He left me on my birthday,” she said quietly. “He called me expired.”
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