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“But that’s not what I want to do with my life!”

“What we do with our lives is not what we always want to, but what we need to,” Mom frowned at me. “You have to look at the bigger picture, Catherine. It’s never what it seems to be.”

“How is this the bigger picture?” I cried. “Your’e leaving. Everything’s falling apart and Dad—Dad’s marrying that witc-“

“Don’t call her that. Show some respect. I raised you better. “ She snapped.

“You raised half of me!”

“And it was the most important half.” She tucked her purse more firmly under one arm. Save for her keys, her hands were now empty. “Now listen to me, I don’t care what happens now, because if it was ever meant to be, then you know this wouldn’t have happened. It’s too late now.”

“Mom, Please-!”

“I wish I could take you with me,” she said. Tears shimmered in her eyes, teal fire, burned at the corners. “But you deserve the whole world and I can’t give you that where I’m going.”

“Mom-!”

“Goodbye, baby.” She blew a kiss over her shoulder and stepped into the car.

It was only after I couldn’t see the car that I realized her empty hands had glowed with the same color as her eyes.