I couldn’t answer.
HAZEL WAS 11. I’D RAISED HER SINCE SHE WAS A BABY.
Now her father, who’d abandoned her after her mother’s death, wanted to take her away.
And in two days, a judge would decide whether she could stay with me.
My daughter, Emily, died when Hazel was only a few months old.
I still remember holding that tiny baby at the funeral.
Everyone kept telling me how sorry they were.
But all I could think was that Hazel would never remember her mother’s voice.
Brandon, Hazel’s father, barely spoke that day.
A week later, he arrived carrying a diaper bag.
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