Laura gently touched my shoulder, but she didn’t speak for me. She had never needed to. She had raised me to become someone capable of speaking for herself.
Karen glanced at the white coat and then at the name embroidered over my heart.
“You changed your name just to hurt us?”
I looked down at Davidson before meeting her eyes again.
“No. I changed it because somebody else earned the right to share hers with me.”
Laura’s eyes immediately filled with tears.
For the first time since approaching me, Karen seemed to understand that this wasn’t a temporary rebellion waiting to be corrected. I wasn’t Emily Higgins anymore, and Laura wasn’t a substitute mother filling an empty position until my biological family decided to return.
Megan quietly asked the question neither of our parents seemed capable of asking.
“Is there any chance we can start over?”
I considered it carefully. I didn’t hate Megan, but forgiveness and reconciliation were different things, and surviving my childhood had taught me not to confuse compassion with surrendering boundaries.
“I don’t know. But if anything ever changes between us, it won’t begin with pretending nothing happened.”
Megan nodded slowly.
