Lan had told me that having no family made me powerless.
She had been wrong.
Family was not the person who demanded my silence or the man who punished me for speaking the truth.
Family was the child resting safely against my heart.
It was the friend who came through the door when danger entered the room.
It was the life I rebuilt without asking permission from anyone who had tried to break me.
I had not kept the house.
I had kept the evidence, my dignity, my daughter, and myself.
That was more than victory.
That was freedom.
