Maya
I curled up on the couch, knees pulled to my chest, as another wave of grief crashed over me. My breath hitched, and my fingers clutched the fabric of my sweater as if grounding myself would somehow lessen the pain twisting inside me. Alejandro’s words echoed in my head, each one slicing deeper than the last.
My mother hadn’t just suffered under her family’s cruelty- meaning not only her in-laws and my father but my brother and me as well. She had been forced to sell her body, forced into addiction, all because of his insatiable pride. And when she had finally tried to break free, he had taken the last thing she had left. Her life.
And to top it off, I had treated her like dirt.
Tears streamed down my face, hot and unrelenting. I missed her so much I thought it might kill me.
