Her face went pale. She tried to stammer an excuse, something about “just joking,” but the truth was already sitting between us like a stone.
We had a long, hard conversation that night. I told her exactly how that moment at the mall felt — like being erased from my own child’s life. She cried. I cried. And maybe, just maybe, she understood.
She hasn’t called me a stranger since.
But that moment? I’ll never forget it.