Abandonment

Jazmin and CeCe are sent off to live with relatives or placed into foster care when their mother is unable to care for them. Their parents are divorced and her mother suffers from alcoholism, depression and ultimately a mental breakdown. Their father lives in a small place and could only keep them for short periods. The girls feel the sting of abandonment for years after they wind up living together in their own apartment.

The story unfolds when Jazmin is fourteen. At that tender age, she deals with hurt and anger over her lost childhood. There are no baby pictures of her—a normal part of life that most people take for granted. Never in her young days did she have a kids party to celebrate her birthday. After being moved around so much, she has learned to protect her fragile feelings by never becoming attached to...