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" April 4, 2009 The last few days have been more than a little tense in our household. While everything was going well with the restaurant, there was a cloud over Sam. I knew it was about Michael, and yet, when I tried to get him to talk about it, he didn&amp;#039;t want to. Last night, while we were in bed, I pushed the issue. &amp;quot;Look Sam, I understand this is your issue with your former father-in-law, but I love you and you have been there for me through everything. And I&amp;#039;ll be darned if you let him come between us. Okay? I&amp;#039;m not going to allow it.&amp;quot; Sam kissed me gently and wrapped his arms around me. He still didn&amp;#039;t want to talk about it but I felt the distance start to evaporate \u2014 which made me feel better. &amp;quot;Okay,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;I love you.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I love you too.&amp;quot; And this morning, Sam and I had to put our issues with Michael aside because Jackson and Kerry had issues of their own.  What seemed to be coming for a long time finally happened: they decided to break up. They seemed calm when they told us this, and Kerry announced that she had spoken to another friend and was going to be spending the remainder of the school year with her and her family. I spoke to Kerry&amp;#039;s parents to confirm they were okay with this plan, and her father and I made arrangements for him to come to New York next week and help her move her belongings. As sad as it was, both the kids seemed calm, and were being more than cordial with each other.  Kerry went over to her friend&amp;#039;s \u2014 the one whose apartment she would be moving into \u2014 and said she was gong to spend the rest of the weekend there. She even gave Jackson a hug goodbye.  It all seemed too easy \u2014 too grown-up \u2014 to be the result of the end of the first major relationship for the both of them. And when Kerry left, I got my first major clue that I was right, and that Jackson was much less fine with the arrangement than he had been letting on.  We were sitting in the living room together, and he was watching a movie. Lili was on my lap. &amp;quot;Sweetie,&amp;quot; I said. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m here if you want to talk about it.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;What&amp;#039;s there to say?&amp;quot; Jackson said.  &amp;quot;A lot of things,&amp;quot; I said. He shook his head. &amp;quot;No, just one. She doesn&amp;#039;t want me. Apparently no one does. Not her, not my mom. Not unless I have something to give them\u2026&amp;quot; What he said almost broke my heart. It really did. Kerry was just one girlfriend he&amp;#039;d have, but he could only see her in the context of his mother. Quite honestly, how could I make excuses for his mother? She was barely calling these days \u2014 since Jackson started the emancipation process \u2014 and I had nothing to say to her. I moved closer to him. &amp;quot;Jackson, listen to me, okay? That is not true. I love you and Lili more than anything in this world. There is nothing I want more than the two of you here with me, safe. I promise you that. I promise you that. And it&amp;#039;s not because of any other reason than that I love you with all of my heart.&amp;quot; He shook his head again. And I knew no matter what I said, he wasn&amp;#039;t going to believe me. Not then. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m going to my room,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;Please leave me alone.&amp;quot; Then he walked away from me. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/love-sex/a4923/teenage-break-up-040409/>