"Daughter, you mustn't have a broken child. Do you understand?"
"Yes, yes, I do."
The pale woman looked up at her mother, fear and concern showing in her eyes.
"Good, because I won't allow a broken child in my family tree."
"I understand," the woman whispered.
▪ ▪ ▪
The woman picked up the small bundle in her arms and rocked it back and forth. A strand of hair fell over the woman's face as she leaned over and pulled a piece of the soft blanket back. The woman gasped as she saw what was inside. With quaking hands, she set the bundle back down and left the room, not looking back.
▪ ▪ ▪
"Mommy!"
A burst of red was the only thing seen as a child no more than five ran through the room to wrap herself around her mother's leg. The child looked up to her mother, who was silently placing clothes in an open suitcase.
"Mommy, whatare you doin?" the child inquired.
The child's question hung in the air for a moment, and when the woman answered, her voice was sad and miserable.
"My darling...I love you," the woman said quietly. The child gave her mother a large, cherry-stained smile.
"Mommy, I love you too!"
"I know, darling." The woman zipped up the suitcase, then sat down on the floor beside her daughter. "I love you, but...but you're broken. I cannot keep you."
The woman's face crumpled a little as she spoke to her daughter. Years of love, pain, and fear threatened to rush out, but the woman kept it all inside as she looked down at her daughter, who didn't quite seem to understand.
"Keep me?" the child asked, her smile slowly turning into a frown as she struggled to comprehend what her mother was saying. "You cannot keep me?"
The woman sucked in a breath as if trying to hold something back and slowly bobbed her head up and down. She then stood back up and handed the small packed suitcase to the child.
"I'm sorry," were the last words she spoke to her daughter before she pushed her out of the house and collapsed into tears behind the front door.
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