The weekend came faster than I expected. The kids were up at 6 a.m., screaming about waffles. Jaya had somehow managed to draw on the wall with what I hoped was chocolate. And Maya had cut her bangs again—short, uneven, and slightly psychotic-looking.
Despite the madness, I felt… lighter.
Maybe it was the fact that I’d finally figured out how to braid Aliya’s hair without tying her ears into it. Or maybe it was because I was finally able to jog three whole minutes without seeing my ancestors. I had even managed to lose half a pound.
Half a pound!
It didn’t seem like much, but in this body, it felt like winning a damn Olympic medal. I flexed in the mirror, grinning like an i***t. The guilt that once lingered in this flesh—Catherine’s sorrow, exhaustion, resentment—wasn’t gone. But it wa
