I nearly dialed 911 on the tattooed teenager holding a screaming baby inside an empty 1 AM laundromat. Then his bag tore open, and my stomach sank with utter shame.

”

“I’m angry that everyone keeps telling me Emma deserves her mother, like I wasn’t both parents for two years.”

The room went very still.

Even the mediator stopped writing.

Jackson’s voice shook.

“I was there for the fevers. I was there for the first steps. I was there when she called every woman in a grocery store ‘mama’ because she was trying to figure continue reading …