Jade stared at the stack of envelopes, each one stamped with urgency, with red ink, withFinal NoticeandPast Duescreaming up at her like accusations.Her fingers trembled as she pulled them out.There was the electric and water bill, and finally, rent.
There was also a credit card bill she shouldn’t have opened in the first place.She didn’t open any of the letters.Heck, Jade didn’t need to, because she already knew what they said.
You’re behind and failing, and you’re running out of time.
Her throat tightened.For a second, she just stood there, clutching the letters like they might burn through her skin.Then Jane’s face flickered in her mind.Jane’s big eyes, soft cheeks, that little laugh that still sounded like surprise every time it escaped her.
Jade shoved the mail into her bag and forced her feet to move.She took one step, and another. Mrs.Rochford’s door was halfway down the hall.Light spilled out from beneath it, warm and steady.
Jade knocked softly, and it opened almost immediately.
“Well, there you are, dear,” Mrs.Rochford said, smiling as she stepped aside.“She’s been waiting.”
Jade’s chest tightened.Jane sat on a blanket in the middle of the living room, surrounded by mismatched toys.She looked up at the sound of Jade’s voice, her face lighting up in a way that hit Jade straight in the heart.
“Mama.”
It wasn’t a full word yet.More sound than language, but Jade felt it like it was everything.
She crossed the room in two quick steps and dropped to her knees, scooping Jane up into her arms.The weight of her, warm and real, grounded her in a way nothing else could.
“Hey, baby,” Jade murmured, pressing her face into Jane’s hair.It smelled like baby shampoo and something soft, something clean.“Hey, sweetheart.”
Jane giggled, her tiny hands grabbing at Jade’s shirt, clutching the worn fabric like it was the most important thing in the world.For a moment, everything else fell away.
The noise in Jade’s head, with the numbers, the worry, the constant, gnawing fear of not having enough faded into something distant and muffled.The ache in her bones, the burn in her feet, the exhaustion that clung to her like a second skin, it all slipped to the edges.
There was only this.Jane’s soft weight in her arms.The warmth of her small body pressed close.The sound of her laughter, bright and unfiltered, like she hadn’t learned yet that the world could be anything but kind.
Jade inhaled slowly, deeply, like she could breathe her in and hold onto it.Nothing else mattered.
Not the way her body felt like it might give out if she stood too long.Not the stack of unopened bills sitting heavy in her bag, each one a reminder of how close she was to losing everything.Not Derek, with his empty promises and disappearing acts, his voice echoing in her head like a mistake she couldn’t undo.
None of it touched this moment.Here, in this small pocket of time, she wasn’t behind.She wasn’t failing.She wasn’t drowning under the weight of everything she couldn’t fix.
She was just Jane’s mother, and Jane was here, safe and smiling.Jane reached for her like Jade was enough.Jade pressed her face into her daughter’s hair, closing her eyes as her grip tightened just a fraction.She was afraid the moment might slip through her fingers if she didn’t hold on hard enough.
“I’ve got you,” she whispered.It was a promise, a vow she wasn’t sure how she’d keep, but would anyway.
Jane laughed again, as if the world had never been anything but good to her.
“Long day?”Mrs.Rochford asked gently.
Jade nodded, pulling back just enough to look at Jane again.“Double shift.”
“Mm.”The older woman’s expression softened.“You work too hard.”
Jade huffed out something that might have been a laugh.“Not hard enough, apparently.”
Mrs.Rochford didn’t comment on that.She never did.Jade shifted Jane to one hip and reached into her bag, pulling out a small wad of cash.It looked thinner than it should.
“Here,” she said, holding it out.
Mrs.Rochford frowned.“Jade, you don’t have to—”
“I do.”Jade met her gaze, steady despite the exhaustion clawing at her.“Please.”
A pause, then Mrs.Rochford took it with a quiet sigh.“You’re a stubborn girl.”
