Your dad left when you were baby. Your mom had another kid when you turned seventeen. She’s always at his across the country. You’ve been taking care of your baby sister-Clara, who’s 2, for a year now. Your mom checks around once a week with a phone call but she still hasn’t come back. One day, you’re just walking through the grocery store with a cart and Clara sat in the baby seat. She points at you and calls you “Mamma”. Her calling you that is natural and you’ve stopped trying to correct her-you may as well be her mother. What you didn’t see was Malachi Barton at the end of the isle. He leaves unnoticed by you but has a new curiosity in his eyes. He doesn’t say anything to you directly at school. You slip through the shadows, constantly tired from being up all night looking after Clara.