Escaping The Woman Who Birthed Me

Since the divorce, Harper's mother has turned every day into a test of devotion. She fakes food poisoning, a mugging, a car crash, each time dragging Harper out of school and into a panic, only to be found safe at home, demanding soup and obedience. When Harper finally confronts her, phantom comments only she can see appear in the air, insisting her mother loves her too much to lose her.

After one freezing chase, Harper falls ill, and her class rank collapses from the top down to fifteenth. At the parent-teacher conference, her mother stands and accuses Mr. Harrison of ignoring a boy who has been harassing Harper, waving a pink envelope Harper has never seen. The room turns on them both.

Harper lifts her head and asks whether she failed because of her mother, while Mr. Harrison tries to explain the emergency absence. The whispers only grow louder.