Ava looked back and forth between us.
Ellen quietly stepped behind her sister like she wanted to disappear from the tension filling the apartment.
“Hi, babies!” Lorraine chirped in that fake sweet voice.
But it was already too late.
They had heard enough.
Ava’s face crumpled first.
She started crying softly, like something inside her had cracked open.
Ellen didn’t cry immediately.
She just stared at Lorraine with tiny clenched fists.
“You don’t want us,” Ellen whispered. “You left us.”
Lorraine blinked.
“Honey, that was a long time ago. I had to. But now I—”
“No!” Ava interrupted through tears. “You left. Bubba stayed. Bubba takes care of us. You just bring stuff. That’s not the same!”
Then both girls started crying at once.
“You didn’t come to my school play!”
“You missed when I got glasses!”
“You don’t know us!”
“Please don’t make us go with her!”
And then came the moment that completely shattered me.
They ran toward me and wrapped themselves around my waist like they were afraid someone might rip us apart.
Ava buried her face against my shirt and sobbed:
“You’re our real parent.”
Lorraine’s expression changed instantly.
All the fake warmth disappeared.
What remained looked irritated.
Embarrassed.
Like we had ruined some perfect scene she imagined in her head.
She straightened her coat, looked directly at me, and said:
“You’ll regret this.”
Then she walked out.
The door slammed so hard one of our picture frames crashed off the wall.
The Court Battle
That night, after the girls finally fell asleep clinging to me, I sat alone at the kitchen table and made a decision.
I wasn’t going to panic.
I wasn’t going to beg.
She had a lawyer?
Fine.
