“If you had actually taken care of your own daughter, like a real mother, instead of playing at being a career woman, none of this would ever have happened.”

“Camellia,” I said, keeping my voice as level as I could, “was the one who was supposed to pick up Brucie.”

“Because you were too busy,” Celina spat, “with that little online store you like to pretend is a real business.

Luke works himself to the bone to give you everything, and you can’t even—”

Something in me, which had been bending under the weight of the whole impossible day, quietly stopped bending.

“My online store,” I said, “pays Brucie’s private preschool tuition.