Dan waved and left, closing the door behind him. Preparing to leave myself, I Grabbed my phone and saw Paul had returned my text.

"Working again? You should take it easy. But I appreciate your hard work and everything you do for us! I have a lot of respect for you, love you, mom!"

I lowered the phone and felt a wave of sadness come over me. Paul telling me he respected me. That would change if he discovered the truth, because for the last few months I couldn't even respect myself.

***** I gratefully pulled into the driveway and slowly got out of the car. In the heat of...