ON OUR ANNIVERSARY NIGHT MY FATHER-IN-LAW KEPT INSULTING ME, BUT WHEN I SAID I WAS PREGNANT… MY HUSBAND SLA:PPED ME IN FRONT OF ALL OUR GUESTS. NO ONE DEFENDED ME… I WIPED MY TEARS AND MADE ONE CALL… ‘DAD… I NEED YOU. PLEASE COME.’

Sometimes, at night, I still felt the ghost of that slap.

Then Elise would curl her tiny fingers around mine, and I would remember what came after.

I had cried.

I had called my father.

Then I had taken back my life in front of everyone who believed I had none.

And the peace that followed wasn’t soft.

It was earned.