“How?” Mom whispered, her voice barely a thread of sound. She looked completely lost, her mind clearly spinning as she tried to wrap her head around the impossible news. “When? When did this even start? Did... did they force you?”
Before I could answer, she moved toward me with a sudden, desperate energy. She grabbed my cheeks, her palms warm and trembling against my skin, just like she used to do when I was a little kid and had scraped my knee. Her eyes were wide and filled with this heartbreaking, innocent concern.
She was looking for a monster to blame, someone she could hate for hurting her daughter, but she didn't realize the truth was much uglier than a simple attack.
I looked down, unable to hold her gaze for even a second longer. The guilt felt like a physical weight in my stom
