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“Oh My That takes some nerve ”

“That’s what I told her ” Jude sagged against the wall, feeling depleted by the whole thing “She wants me to supervise visitations so she can see Grace ”

“You told her no, of course That’s what I would do ”

It took a moment for her htened “That’s what you would do?”

“Of course ”

Jude pulled away fro out, she saw her ht color and dying black leaves That’s what I would do

“You can’t let that girl hurt you again,” her mother said

Mia would be on my side in this

Her rief, ht now, but Jude wasn’t really listening She started ht in a rip current Before she knew it, she was at Mia’s bedroo it for the first time in years She went to the closet, opened it, and stepped inside A light came on automatically, and there it was, just as she’d left it The box marked Mia

A fine layer of dust attested to how long she’d been away It had taken her years to find the strength to pack up these belongings And once she’d done it, there had been no strength left to remember them

“Good-bye, Mother,” she said, and hung up the phone, dropping it to the carpeted floor She sank to her knees and opened the flaps The ed within Yearbooks Trophies for soccer and volleyball An old pink tutu that had once fit a six-year-old USC sweats Barbie dolls with no clothes and a pair of scuffed white baby shoes Everything except the journal, which she’d never found

She pulled each iteh she’d cried for years and years, it felt as if these tears were new somehow, hotter; they burned her eyes and her cheeks At the bottom of the box lay a fraently around one another The sht and shiny

She could al …

Mia would have been on my side in this

Strangely, that sentence brought back Mia as brightly as if she’d just sailed through the door, saying, hey Madre, and laughing And not the Mia of static awatt smile and crazy fashion sense and her insecurities