feel safe.

I wanted her to know the warmth I had spent much of my childhood searching for.

Most of all, I wanted my mother to love Lily without turning that love into another opportunity to criticize me.

So I packed the diaper bag, checked the gifts, and carried my little girl to the car.

I had no idea that by the end of the afternoon, I would be leaving my parents’ house with a completely different understanding of what family meant.

Chapter Two: A Lifetime of Little Wounds

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