Disbelief has KY's mouth hanging open. "So, you let him hither?"

Another wave of her hand, dismissive. She is a completely different woman now. The warm woman who braided our hair at night and sang to us when we couldn't sleep is gone. She didn't act like this when KY's dad was alive. Instead, standing in her place is someone KY doesn't know most days. Fading further and further from the woman KY still clings to as KY's mom. There are glimpses of that woman still there, but they're so infrequent that they feel like mirages.

And it breaks KY's heart to see what she's let herself become.

"DEBORAH, go...