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excused her behaviour because I knew she was under Lyndon’s influence and, even if by some miracle she had refused to believe his version of events, she would never openly defy him. Yet she was my mother. How could she abandon me in a way Jane could not? Her own daughter. Why hadn’t she helped? In fact, she was the only one who could have overruled my brother. Why didn’t my mother love me enough to risk everything? Those thoughts would forever haunt me.
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