Blood and Inheritance
I rushed straight home.
By the time I arrived, it was already deep into the night. Lila had just come back from work.
Overjoyed, I grabbed her hand, only to feel the calluses covering her palms. They were rough and hardened, nothing like the hands a girl her age should have.
She threw her arms around me, her voice trembling. "Mom, you’re not leaving again, right? You’ll stay this time? You’ll stay home with me?"
My chest tightened. She was twenty now, a grown woman, but she clung to me like a frightened child. The light in her eyes was timid, her voice subdued. Gone was the lively girl I remembered.