"It seems my daughter and I are starting to have that mother-daughter relationship we never had," I reply with a genuine smile, "and that makes me very happy."
"I'm really happy for both of you, Michelle. You deserve it," she tells me sincerely. Then, leaning a little closer to me, she adds in a lower tone, "But... honestly... don't you miss your husband?"
The question catches me off guard, and I stay silent, processing it.
What could I miss about him?
His late arrivals, when he only came home to sleep and, in recent years, after being with his lover? The almost nonexistent displays of affection? The endless silences at the table, in bed, in our life? The detachment with which he destroyed what I once thought we could have?
I exhale slowly and look her in the eyes.
"Since I left the
