“Why did you leave at all, Dee? Why did you come to New York City in the first place?” the man asked softly. He sat in the old, wicker chair across the room from her. She sobbed gently.

“What do you think?” she snapped. “I wanted to get away. I wanted something new. And then, Bobby came to me with the school scholorship, and I just wanted to make everything better. I wanted Aaron to feel like he had a mother again.”

They sat in silence. The man couldn’t bring himself to tell her she was a good mother, because that was a flat out lie.