Fiona stopped pacing. Stood very still by the window.
“Since you got here,” Stella continued, her voice rising, “you’ve been looking for reasons this won’t work. The house is too small. The school isn’t rigorous enough. The Shack is ‘charming’ like that’s an insult. And now driving—driving, Mum, which is a normal thing that normal teenagers do—is suddenly evidence that everything is wrong.”
“I’m worried about your safety.”
“No. You’re worried about losing control.” Stella heard her voice shake and hated it. “You’ve had control my whole life. What I ate, where I went, who I saw.And now I’m here, making decisions without you, and you can’t handle it.”
“I’m your mother.”
“I know! I know you’re my mother. But I’m also—” Stella stopped. Breathed. “I’m also a person. With my own life. And I’m trying to build something here, and every time I think you might actually support that, you find a new reason to tear it down.”
Fiona moved to the armchair, sat down slowly. Her hands were clasped in her lap, knuckles white.
“The driver’s license,” she said, her voice flat. “What else don’t I know?”
“What do you mean?”
“What else has been happening that you haven’t told me? What else has Tyler been teaching you, deciding for you, doing without my consent?”
“It’s not like that?—”
“Then whatisit like?” Fiona’s voice was cold, controlled. “Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like my daughter has been living a secret life all summer. Signing up for school, getting a job, driving, becoming a photographer—all of it happening without me. And I’m supposed to just... accept that? Sign the papers and go home and pretend I’m okay with being erased from your life?”
“No one’s erasing you!”
“Aren’t they?” Fiona’s face was closed now, expressionless. “You have a grandmother now. Great-grandmother. Aunts, cousins, a whole family that you’ve known for one summer.”
She stopped. Didn’t finish the sentence.
Stella waited. The silence stretched.
“I want you to come home,” Fiona said finally.
“Mum—”
“I want you to come home. With me. When I leave.” Fiona stood, moved back to the window, her back to Stella. “Pack your things. This was a nice experiment, but it’s time to come back to reality.”
“Thisismy reality.”
“No. This is a fantasy. A summer vacation that went too long.” Fiona turned, and her face was hard. “You’re my daughter. You belong with me.”
“I belong here.”
“You belong where I say you belong. Until you’re eighteen, that’s how it works.”
Stella stood slowly. Her legs felt unsteady.
“And if I don’t want to go?”
“Then we have a problem.” Fiona’s voice was flat. “Because I’m not leaving without you. I’m not going home and telling the twins that their sister chose strangers over them.”
“They’re not strangers. They’re family.”
“I’m your family. I’m the one who raised you. I’m the one who was there every single day while Tyler was off taking pictures and living his life.” Fiona’s control was cracking slightly, anger bleeding through. “Hedoesn’t get to have you. Not like this. Not when he didn’t earn it.”
“He showed up when I needed him.”
“And where was he before that? Where was he when you were sick, when you were scared, when you needed someone at two in the morning?”
