Family should be a place of safety- a sanctuary from the storm of the rest of the world. They're supposed to be the ones you rely on the most, but sometimes that sense of security was nothing more than a fantasy- a delusion we believed in to make our burdens seem a little lighter. From a young age, we're taught to have faith in these people we're connected to by more than blood, but it's devastating when that blind faith is shattered.
It was laughable that I'd spent so long yearning for 'normal'. Now, the façade my parents had created around me had completely crumbled, exposing all the painful truths they'd kept hidden. Their secrets had demolished everything I'd dreamed for my future. Everything I'd believed about myself and the world around me had been systematically torn apart one truth at a time.
They're gone, and I was left to pick up the pieces, unsure what to do about it all, but it didn't look like I had much choice in the matter. It appeared as though my path had been laid out long before I was even born.
One thing was for sure, though. I could forget 'normal'. It was no longer even on my radar. After everything that had happened, my every desire was focused squarely on revenge. She should have loved me, protected me, but she'd betrayed me in the worst possible way. She knew who meant the most to me, which target would cut me the deepest, and she went for it. Now she had to pay for everything she'd done to destroy so many lives.
All I could hope for was to simply survive whatever would come next.