Kate's POV
The lavender and eucalyptus that should have been melting into my skin only made me nauseous.
I stared at my phone. At the second message Rebecca had sent. The white glow burned straight through to the back of my eyes.
We need to talk. Mom would want us to be a family again.
I closed my eyes. Pressed them shut until the heat behind my lids stopped threatening to spill.
Family.
Everyone gets to define that word for themselves. In my dictionary, my father and Rebecca had lost the right to use it the same week they lost the right to say my mother's name.
I was seventeen.
Mom was dying, and while the rest of my class was learning to drive and arguing about prom themes, my whole world smelled like bleach and printer toner. The toner came from the SAT prep books I kept stacked
