“Once a mother, always a mother,” Becky said, smiling gently.
Mom smiled too, in an earnest happy way that made my chest ache. I hadn’t seen her look this contented since I arrived. I hated that Becky was the one to make her look like this, when it should have been Amber, Alice, and me.
I didn’t want to be a part of this lie. I wanted to tell her the truth.
But in the moment, it was so difficult to ruin Mom’s happiness when it was so rare a thing to see.
I stood frozen, unsure.
I didn’t want to break my mother’s heart.
Amber’s POV
Not all that long ago, I used to work at the same hospital that Julian’s mother was staying at. While I had since moved on, I still maintained some contacts there with some of the nicer staff.
One of the nurses, in particularly, had been especially kin
