I had never once considered that they might believe they owed me loyalty against their own mother.
“Listen to me,” I said. “You don’t have to protect me from knowing her.”
Brielle’s eyes filled.
“We haven’t forgiven her.”
“You don’t have to.”
“She apologizes a lot.”
“Being sick doesn’t mean you owe her forgiveness either.”
Taryn looked down.
“She wants to see you.”
“No.”
The answer came out before she finished.
Neither girl argued.
After a moment, Brielle said, “We told her you probably wouldn’t.”
“You were right.”
There was a long silence before Taryn spoke again.
“She’s back in the hospital. The doctors aren’t sure she’ll go home this time.”
I looked at their faces.
For the first time that morning, I stopped thinking about Colette.
My daughters were scared.
Not of me anymore.
Of losing someone they had only recently begun to know again.
