It wasn’t a big deal. Logically, I knew that. In the long run, it was a very small thing. But it still upset me, mostly because I knew that no matter what I did, Kallie would always be a little bit different. I hated the thought that she’d have to feel bad about herself due to something that wasn’t under her control. I’d do everything I could to make sure she was as well off as she could be, but even that wasn’t a guarantee. I couldn’t protect her from everything.

“That’s how every parent feels,” Tina told me one day while Kallie and Angelica were playing. “No matter how healthy your child is, you can never completely protect them. Kallie has an illness, but it’s manageable. You have to accept that and try to do the best you can anyway.”

While I was a little leery of Tina’s advice given her actions with and regarding Bette over the past several years, it was good advice. And I’d tried to tell Alice the same thing, so I figured that I might as well get used to the idea that things weren’t going to be perfect. They weren’t that bad, though. I had to keep reminding myself that while Kallie’s disease could be very serious, it wasn’t terminal, and with the right preparations she’d be just fine.

Helena called a few times while she and Alice were away, mostly to give me updates on Alice’s condition. Apparently, the time away was doing her a lot of good, and she was finally able to relax. Helena said that the two of them had been talking a lot, and while Alice was still feeling guilty and stressed over what had happened, she knew that she couldn’t have done anything more than what she did. It wasn’t much, and I knew it wouldn’t be as easy once she came back, but it was something.

Helena also mentioned to me, quietly, that she’d received a phone call from her mother about the possible reinstatement of her fortune. This also meant that Peggy would support Helena in the attempt to get at least partial custody of her children, something she hadn’t done before simply because she’d thought that such an abrupt lifestyle change would make her far too distracted to care for the children. However, after giving Winnie multiple chances to prove herself and being disappointed at the amount of care shown to her grandchildren, Peggy had apologized to Helena and claimed that she now knew that Helena’s accusations of Winnie simply being out for money weren’t groundless after all.