While rushing home, I caught my tiny children abandoned in the woods, injured and unrecognizable. I burst into my parents’ house yelling, “What did you do?!” My sister coldly replied, “You lost your rights.” Before I could react, my dad choked me out. Then, my phone rang with a call from the ICU…

neurological damage is extensive. He’s currently in the ICU on the fourth floor. He’s unresponsive.”

I looked at Joanne. The woman who had birthed me, raised me, and ultimately betrayed me in the most fundamental way possible. She was weeping loudly now, loud, ugly, performative sobs, begging for forgiveness, pleading for me to understand her panic.continue reading …