tightened her grip on her bag and kept walking toward our bedroom.
Inside, the silence was deafening. I felt a crushing weight of shame. I had promised her safety. I had promised her that my family would love her the way I did. Instead, I had brought her into a den of lions and asked her to be patient while they bit her. I watched her close the door, and I knew our lives had changed forever.
Later that evening, when the house had settled and the guests had retreated,
