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Then she heard Noah’s screa

It seeh-pitched, hysterical sound Somewhere deep inside, she reacted to that scream, wept for it, but her head was so fuzzy that she couldn’t make sense of it all

“Mommy!”

With shaking hands, she undid her seat belt and unhooked his buainst her neck

Slowly, slowly, she began to feel hi to hi, she’d held back from Noah, been afraid of hi back like water through a stor her “Oh, my God,” she cried “I’m so sorry”

He looked up at her, sniffling, his eyes dark with tears “Are you okay, Mommy?”

“I will be, Noah I promise you”

Vivi Ann put the truck in reverse and backed away froine idled too fast, revved when she hit the gas, but it backed up, dropped down from the curb

Her whole body was shaking as she drove; still, she tried to hide that fro with his dinosaurs as if nothing had happened But he’d remember this; she was sadly certain of it

She drove to the party and dropped hihtly he squirmed to be free

“I love you, Noah,” she said, wondering how long it had been since she’d let herself say those three words

“Love you, too, Mommy”

Straightening slowly, she watched him walk up to the front door In another life—the one she’d once iined for herself—she would have walked up with him, held his hand the whole way, and then joined in with the otherout cupcakes

Now she stood here, alone and separated from her own life

It had to stop