\u2026because she was my best friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
The words didn\u2019t land right away. They just hung there between us, heavy and strange.<\/p>\n
I blinked. \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Janet swallowed, her hand trembling as she picked up the photo. \u201cYour mom and I\u2026 we grew up together. We were inseparable. When she got sick, I was there\u2014every hospital visit, every bad day. I promised her I\u2019d look after you.\u201d<\/p>\n
My chest tightened. \u201cThen why didn\u2019t anyone ever tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour dad thought it would confuse you,\u201d she said softly. \u201cAnd after she passed\u2026 you were hurting. I didn\u2019t want to force myself into your life as anything more than someone who cared.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt the anger draining out of me, replaced by something uncomfortable\u2014guilt.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll this time,\u201d she continued, eyes glossy, \u201cI kept that photo because it reminds me of her\u2026 and of the promise I made.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at the picture again. My mom was laughing, her arm wrapped around a younger Janet. They looked\u2026 happy. Real.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought you were trying to replace her,\u201d I admitted quietly.<\/p>\n
Janet shook her head. \u201cNo one could ever replace your mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence filled the room, but it felt different now\u2014not sharp, not angry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d I said, my voice barely above a whisper.<\/p>\n
She gave a small, sad smile. \u201cMe too.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time since she came into my life, I didn\u2019t see her as someone who took something away from me.<\/p>\n
I saw her as someone who had been holding on to it all along.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2026because she was my best friend.\u201d The words didn\u2019t land right away. They just hung there between us, heavy and strange. I blinked. \u201cWhat?\u201d Janet swallowed, her hand trembling as … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesaddairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesaddairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesaddairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesaddairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesaddairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesaddairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10351,"href":"https:\/\/thesaddairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10349\/revisions\/10351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesaddairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesaddairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesaddairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesaddairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}