I moved to a small coastal town three hours away, started therapy, adopted a scruffy rescue dog named Cooper, and slowly rediscovered the version of myself that existed before all the lies.
When my mother eventually begged for forgiveness, I replied with two sentences:
“You saw me bleeding on the floor, and you chose the person who stabbed me. That tells me everything I need to know.”
I didn’t just survive what they did to me. I reclaimed my entire life.