My ex-husband had walked out with another woman, leaving me with Sophia, a modest income as a freelance editor, and just barely enough savings to start over.

And my parents had practically begged me to move back into their three-bedroom apartment, temporarily, to get on my feet.

“This will always be your home,” my mother had promised me then, holding my hands, her eyes warm.

I believed her.

I wanted to believe her.

I had nowhere else I wanted to go, and I was frightened, and my mother said the words a frightened daughter most needs to hear, and I moved home.

And at first, I helped, gladly, voluntarily.