carried the same controlling certainty she had used on me for decades.
“Ivan,” she said, immediately trying to step around me. “Thank goodness you’re still here. We need to talk privately before that girl fills your head with more nonsense—”
I did not move aside.
“You are not coming into this house, Mom.”
Wendy froze.
“Ivan! I’m your mother. I came here to protect you from—”
“You didn’t come to protect me. You came to keep controlling me. For seven years, you let Jessi believe I abandoned my child. You
