“Gladys, why don’t you sit down for a minute?”
She looked at him with sudden warmth.
“There you are, sweetheart.” She patted his cheek. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
My heart skipped.
Sweetheart?
I looked from her to Kyle.
He closed his eyes for a brief second.
Then he quietly said, “Alice, she’s my mother.”
The room seemed to tilt. I looked at Kyle, then back at the woman.
I laughed once, and it sounded nothing like me.
“You said your mother left when you were six.”
“My father spent 30 years telling me she abandoned us.”
I stared at him.
“What are you talking about?”
Before he could answer, Gladys looked toward the hallway.
“Where’s the little girl?”
“Mia’s asleep,” Kyle said.
Gladys smiled.
“Good. She gave me her room.”
She reached down and picked up the stuffed rabbit Mia had slept with since kindergarten.
She hugged it against her chest.
“I can’t sleep without him,” she said with a smile.
My eyes snapped toward him.
“You let Mia sleep in the kitchen?”
