And me? I just stood there like someone had unplugged my brain. My mouth opened, then closed, then opened again, like a goldfish experiencing emotional trauma. Mia didn’t understand the words. Not fully. But she understood the rejection. Her face crumpled like tissue paper left out in the rain. And that’s when the dizziness hit me so hard I had to grab the back of a chair. Not because I thought I might fall. No, I needed the chair so I wouldn’t grab my mother-in-law, Sharon, by the throat instead.