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“I’m not bullying you,” Mom said. “I’m simply asking for my fair share.”

She wasn’t listening. She never had. I’d given her so many opportunities to fix things between us, and all it took was one man in her ear whispering about a payout for her to ruin it all again. She didn’t even bother defending herself. She didn’t even bother to suggest shedidcare about me and Dylan.

“You’re already getting your fair share,” I said. “Jack shit. And if you don’t get your life together, you’ll have less than that. You’ll end up alone.”

I stormed out the door to my car. Mom called after me, but I ignored her.

Stephan was right. Mom’s a lost cause. She’ll never be the mother I wanted. She’ll always put herself first. I can’t force her to change. I need to stop wishing she was different and start being realistic.

I slammed the car door and pulled out of the driveway. She hadn’t even followed me onto the porch. She probably already had a fresh bottle of wine open in the kitchen and was complaining about me to her new lawyer boyfriend.

I pulled out my phone and called Stephan. He answered on the first ring.

“Hey, Harley, everything okay?”

His warm voice in my ear made my anger crack open, and it suddenly felt a lot more like pain. Like grief. My voice caught in my throat. “I—it’s fine. I’m on my way back.”

“Everything okay?” he asked again.

“I don’t know. It wasn’t really what I was expecting.”

“She didn’t apologize, did she?”

I huffed a small laugh. “How’d you know?” I pulled out onto the two-lane highway and headed back across town toward the clan’s lakeside complex.

“I know Liz well enough,” Stephan said. “She’s not exactly the apologetic type.”

“Logically, I know that, but still, I thought that maybe now that she was a grandmother…”

“She’s had nearly a decade to change her ways.”

He was right, but that didn’t mean I wanted it to be true.

Headlights flashed in my rearview mirror over and over. The truck behind me was right on my tail, driving erratically. The horn honked.

“Jeez,” I muttered.

“What is it?”

“Just someone driving like a psycho behind me,” I said. “They’re pissed I’m going the speed limit.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m on the way back, like I said.”

The truck behind me began to honk repeatedly.

“They should just pass me,” I muttered.

“Don’t pull over on the highway. Get into town first.”

I balked. “What? Is this something that happens around here?”

“Keep driving. Stay calm.”

“That’s not making me feel more calm!”

The truck honked again, its headlights flashing again. Then the engine roared, and the truck sped out onto the wrong side of the road, despite the fact that we were on a narrow, winding two-lane highway.Good riddance. I wasn’t even driving slowly.