Status Updates From Mockingbird (Miriam Black, #2)

Wham.
Her mother drops a cardboard box on the ground in front of her. CD cases rattle within - Social Distortion, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails. Above the CDs: comic books. Batman stares from the top, with Killer Croc in a headlock. Beneath that, a glimpse of Jean Grey from the X-Men. Miriam spies the bindings of paperback books she nabbed from the used bookstore down in Sunbury: Poppy Brite, Stephen King...

By now, Miriam's crying again. She can't believe she has more tears, more spit, more snot, but here it comes, just as the pain of unstoppable grief is again hitting her in the chest like a sledgehammer. She doubles over. "I won't. I won't go back. I won't come back."
"Miriam, I'll do better."
And then she says the final words: "No. You won't. Because I won't give you the chance." She slams the phone down.