"Mom!" Marah said sharply, as if she'd just remembered something important. "I need to tell you something."
Kate looked back, smiling. "Don't worry, honey. We'll be great." Then she followed the woman down the busy corridor. Through the walls she could hear applause, even a smattering of laughter.
At the edge of the stage, the woman paused. "When you hear your name, you'll walk out."
Breathe.
Suck in your stomach. Stand up straight.
She heard Tully say, "And now I'd like you all to meet my good friend Kathleen Ryan . . ."
Kate stumbled around the corner and found herself standing beneath the bright glare of the stage lights. It was so disorienting that it took her a second to process her surroundings.
There was Tully, standing center stage, smiling at her.
Behind her was Dr. Tillman, the psychiatrist who specialized in family counseling.
Tully swept over to her side, took her arm. Beneath the swell of applause, she said, "We're live, Katie, so just roll with it."
Kate glanced over at the screen behind them. There was a huge image of two women shouting at each other. Then she looked at the audience.
Johnny and her parents were in the front row.
Tully faced them. "Today we're talking about overprotective mothers and the teenage daughters who hate them. Our goal is to get a dialogue going, to break up the logjam of communication that comes with adolescence and get these two talking again."
Kate actually felt the blood drain from her face. "What?"
Behind her, Dr. Tillman moved from his place in the shadows to a chair onstage. "Some mothers, especially the controlling, domineering type, actually damage their children's fragile psyches without ever really seeing what they're doing. Children can be like flowers, trying to blossom in too small a space. They need to break out, make their own mistakes. We don't help them by wrapping them in rules and rigid expectations and pretending that we can keep them safe."
The full impact of what was happening hit Kate.
They were calling her a bad mother, on national television, with her family right here.
She wrenched her arm away from Tully. "What are you doing?"
"You need help," Tully said, sounding reasonable and just a little sad. "You and Marah both do. I'm scared for you. So is your husband. He begged me to help. Marah wants to confront you about it, but she's afraid."
Marah walked onstage, smiling brightly at the audience.
Kate felt the start of tears, and the vulnerability fueled her anger. "I can't believe you'd do this to me."
Dr. Tillman came forward. "Come on, Kathleen, Tully is being your friend here. You're crushing your daughter's tender spirit. Tully just wants you to address your parenting style—"
"She's going to help me be a better mother?" She turned to Tully. "You?" Then she looked at the audience. "You're taking advice from a woman who doesn't know the first thing about love or family or the hard choices women have to make. The only person Tully Hart ever loved is herself."
"Katie," Tully said in a low, warning voice. "We're live."
"That's all you care about, isn't it? Your ratings. Well, I hope they keep you warm when you're old, because you won't have anything or anyone else. What the hell do you know about motherhood or love?" Kate stared at her, feeling sick enough that she thought she might throw up. "Your own mother didn't love you. And you'd sell your soul for fame. Hell, you just did." She turned back to the audience. "There's your icon, folks. A woman so fucking warm andcaringthat she's probably never told a single human being she loved them."
Kate wrenched off her microphone and power pack and threw them on the floor. As she stormed offstage, she snagged Marah's arm and pulled her along.
Backstage, Johnny rushed at her, took her in his arms, and held her tightly, but even his body heat couldn't reach her. Her parents and the boys ran up behind him, creating a circle around Kate and her daughter. "I'm sorry, honey," he said. "I didn't know . . ."
"I can't believe Tully would do that," Mom said. "She must have thought—"
"Don't," Kate said sharply, wiping her eyes. "I don't care what she thought or wanted or believed. Not anymore."
Tully ran out into the hallway, but Kate was gone.
