"No," I said quietly, "That's not how it is."
She finally looked up, saw me. Saw my eyes.
"You...you don't have to...I understand that..." she never made it through whatever she was trying to say, too choked up to continue.
"Becky," I said, keeping my voice soft, "I need you to trust me. You aren't an awful mother. That's the illness talking. Julia worked herself up far before your tried to talk with her. Her explosion was probably inevitable. She's a good girl and she's in the grip of stuff she doesn't understand. We do, though."
She reached out her hand and placed it in mine. She was confused now. Still wary, but not hopeless. A good start.
"Julia's feeling the same kind of attraction to me that you did. That i felt for Mom. She may have done some of the same sort of thing that you
