“Mom! Please, open the door!”

    No matter how desperately Ileana pleaded, Karen stood her ground. She neither stepped forward nor retreated, her daughter’s cries drifting past her as if carried away by the wind.

    Ileana’s lips trembled, and tears slipped down her cheeks.

    “Mom, I miss you so much…”

    Her voice wavered, just like when she was a little girl, trying ito /iwin Karen over with childish sweetness.

    “Mom, my birth parents didn’t want me–I get it, really. They never raised me, so of course they don’t care. But you… you’re the one who brought me up. Are you going to turn your back on me too?”

    Karen pressed her lips together. “You’re the one who left us. Whye back now?”

    Panic flickered across Ileana’s face, but she tried to hide it. “I didn’t leave! I didn’t!”

    She rubbed her nose, a nervous habit giving her away.

    “It was Scott!” she blurted, her tone suddenly certain. “It was Scott and the others–they wouldn’t let me talk to you. They cut me off from everyone. I… I didn’t have a choice, Mom, you know I was just a kid back then. I wasn’t even eighteen. What could I do?”

    “So inow /ithey’ve changed their minds, have they?” Karen’s voice was t, her disappointment long since worn into numbness. Still, she needed to ask, needed to hear it from Ileana herself.

    What had the Mortons ever done to deserve this? After everything they’d given her, why would she break their hearts like this? And now, instead of facing her own mistakes, she was trying to drag Alessia down with her, sending strangers to hound her online.

    What had they done so wrong to raise a daughter so utterly ungrateful–a daughter who would turn on them without remorse?

    Karen felt neither sadness nor anger. She’d been through too much for that now. She only spoke because she wanted answers–nothing more.

    But Ileana still thought Karen was in the dark, still clinging to her own pitiful performance.

    00:55

    “I’m an adult now, Mom. But I was away, overseas, and the moment I got back, I came here to see you,” she said, forcing a smile as she gripped the iron railing, as if letting go meant losing herst chance.

    “Please, Mom, just let me in. I’m so tired from standing out here. Look at me–my clothes, my hair… Can we just go inside and talk? I don’t want the neighbors to see us like this.”

    Karen’s gaze was empty, her eyes stripped of emotion. She shook her head slowly, but there was an unmistakable firmness in her gesture.

    “This is my home. I don’t want strangersing in.”

    The smile froze on Ileana’s face. “Mom, what do you mean, ‘strangers‘? I’m your Ileana, the one you always loved most! If Dad and my brothers were here, they’d let me in–of course they would.”

    “When you left, you said we’d go our separate ways. We kept our promise. I hope you can do the same. And don’t use my family as an excuse. Even if they were here, I know they’d make the same choice I’m making now.”

    Karen’s words were steady, each one clear and resolute.

    “No way. Call Dad and my brothers–they’d never turn me away. I… I don’t have my phone, it broke. Please, Mom, just call them. They’ve always loved me. They wouldn’t abandon me.”

    “That’s right–they always did love you…” Karen let out a bitterugh, her voice heavy with irony. But the mockery was for herself, not for Ileana.

    Watching Karen’s reaction, Ileana’s nerves began to fray.

    “Mom, just let me speak ito /ithem. Please.”

    “Is it really your phone that’s broken or lost? Or did they block your number? Don’t you know the answer yourself?”