The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing

Hardin’s heroin use continues as she uses her con-artist skills to keep the new, even more dangerous addiction hidden from her mother-in-law. She shifts blame for this to DJ, even as she takes steps to secure her next hit. They steal from DJ’s mother while they live in her house, survive off her charity, and are free on her bail money. Their probation officers inform them that their 27-year sentence has been reduced to roughly four, meaning they will lose Kaden but be free fairly soon if the plea deal doesn’t go through. Hardin continues to use heroin and laments the obstacles in her way to reunifying with her sons and getting her life back on track.

Hardin goes unannounced to her son’s basketball game only to find Kaden and Bryan at the game. This is a clear violation of her bail, which prohibits her from seeing Kaden without CPS present. Bryan’s wife confronts her, threatening to report her and ruin the plea deal.

When Hardin awakes, her arm is swollen and covered in track marks. In the ER, she’s told that repetitive heroin use has caused an infection close to sepsis. After a week, she’s on morphine, and DJ is injecting heroin directly into her IV.