Chapter 24

Things got quiet in the following days.

I stayed upstairs in our bedroom for over a week. The first times I went down the stairs, I was glad I was alone because I felt stupid and haunted by the sheer risk this posed to me. I couched down above the stairs and went down on my ass, one step at a time like a toddler. But I walked downstairs like nothing had happened.

I learned to build this mask over my face of a strong woman that wouldn’t do this. I knew that if I crumbled...