“My dad owns every law firm in this province,” the lawyer’s daughter laughed after ramming her brand-new Tesla into my old Subaru

She carried sadness in silence so complete it frightened me sometimes. I became their aunt and their legal guardian in the same breath, then their mother in every way that mattered before I ever earned that word out loud. We survived the first year through thrift stores, casseroles, and routines built one exhausted day at a time. I learned how to continue reading …