CHAPTER 24One Year Later
Jessie
“Laurel, please,” Jessie begged over the phone. “Please don’t.”
“I have to.”
“Why? She doesn’t want to come, Mom.”
Her mother snorted. “Emma’s twelve.”
“So?”
“She’s twelve! Who lets a twelve-year-old make a decision like that?”
“But she doesn’t want to!”
“Jessie, it doesn’t matter. I’m her mother. I deserve visitation—at the very least. And if Len and Sarah deny me that, I have to take action. I can’t just sit back and let them take my daughter away from me.”
“But Mom! They’re not taking her away. Emma doesn’t want to come. Aren’t you listening?”
The line went silent for a moment.
“Mom?”
“Jessie, it was not my fault you had that cyst. What happened last summer—Emma is not allowed to blame me for that!”
Jessie moved her hand over her abdomen ins
