#Chapter 33 – In the Mirror

I slam my door behind me and press my back against it, slipping down to the floor and crying into my hands. Amelia’s words echo after me – sham, slut, whore. Disappear. In so many ways, they’re all true. Glad, for once, to be in an empty house, I let myself cry my heart out, reliving all of the darkest moments of my life. Joyce, grabbing me, throwing me into that closet. Watching him with my sister. My father, ripping me out of Victor’s hotel room, not saying a word to me the whole ride home. The banishment, cold and formal. Sleeping on a city bench. Begging for work so that I could buy a meal – and then, so I could buy a pregnancy test when. The complicated experience of giving birth alone, welcoming my two boys into the world, promising to love them no matter what, but with no family there to stand with me as I gave them their names. Years of working, struggling, to keep a roof over their heads. The absolute humiliation of being evicted, my life’s possessions strewn