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Wariness crawled up her spine as she swiped her finger on the touch screen to answer the call "Hello?"

"Mia! Oh, baby, it’s so good to hear your voice!"

The rage returned in full-force, hardening her insides and stiffening her shoulders It took a serious ah her words were cold and biting

"What do you want?"

On the other end, Brenda Whatever-her-current-last-name sounded devastated "Baby, it’s h clenched teeth "And I repeat, what do you want?"

A soft sob met her eardrums, but Mia wasn’t put off by her mother’s crocodile tears The woman was a master manipulator who knew precisely which buttons to push In Mia’s case, Brenda knew to appeal to her daughter’s innate tendency to take care of others in need, but after years of playing this game, Mia knew better than to fall for it

"I just wanted to see howsince we’ve talked"

A cloud of disbelief swirled through her "And why do you think that is, Moo and haven’t been heard from since!"

There was another sniffing noise "I told you, I needed to focus on e, baby I needed tiry she was ready to burst "No, what you told me was that you needed me to watch Danny while you went on your honeye boy to raise"

"Our wires ht you understood what I was asking for"

"Oh, you mean a two-year hall pass fro for?"

"Mia, calet anxious when people yell at me"

Every muscle on her face froze in a mask of shock and fury She wanted to whip the phone across the room and watch it shatter into a oddah the telephone line The woet anxious when so me!" she yelled "You left Danny, Mom You just left him and expected me to take care of hiued "Your brother is a wonderful, well-behaved kid"

"How the fk would you know? You were never around when he was growing up, and you haven’t been around these last two years"

"Well, I’ to be around soon"

Horror sla about?"

"Danny e to see me I amped ork so I couldn’to in the next week or two I can’t wait to see you guys"