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Then Mom said something I will never forget. She said, The only person turning my death into property is you. Silence. Then footsteps. I stepped back just before Vanessa came storming out. She saw me in the hallway. Her face hardened. And she said, You always have to be here, don’t you? Then she left. I went into the den. Mom was trembling. Not crying. Just exhausted. Exhausted in a way that looked deeper than illness. I knelt beside her. I asked if she was okay. She took my hand and said someth