"Maybe your mother tried to break you, to tell you that you were nothing, that you'd never matter, that you were a waste of her time, but she never succeeded. Maybe you still have scars, but those marks on your skin mean you've lived long enough to heal.
Maybe you lived, once, a life full of secrets. Ones you could never tell, not because you didn't know the words, but because you had learned, time and time again, that the words didn't matter. People would rather believe a pretty lie than an ugly truth, and you were always the one who wasn't believed. So you learned the power in silence, and in secrets. Maybe you still look over your shoulder, but at least you got away.
And after all, if you'd had a childhood that was different, one that didn't always feel like walking on knives, maybe you would never have found your voice. If you hadn't been forced to swallow your words, you would have never learned the power in speaking them.
This is what you tell yourself. This is how you keep breathing. This is what happily ever after means."
- Kat Howard, Roses & Rot
