Dr. Lawson could barely conceal his disgust.
“You cannot be serious.”
“We have another daughter to think about.”
Finally, Thomas looked directly at me. What he said next remained lodged inside my memory long after chemotherapy erased almost everything else about that day.
“Megan has potential. She is brilliant, focused, extraordinary. You have always been average, Emily, and we are not sacrificing a promising future for an average one.”
Cacer frightened me, but my parents’ calculation did something worse. They had assigned values to their daughters and decided mine wasn’t high enough to justify the cost.
I made myself smaller on the examination table and managed to whisper the only argument a thirteen-year-old girl should never have to make.
“I’m your daughter too.”
Dr. Lawson abruptly pushed back his chair.
