We finally walk by my parents and sister, who stand in the grand entryway with stone-cold faces. I find each of their eyes. “Please.” My voice is raspy and utterly broken. “I want to stay. Please.” My father’s jaw clenches— annoyed. My sister’s gaze narrows into a thing of cruelty. But it’s my mother who truly guts me. She looks at me with disgust, and then she doesn’t look at me at all. Mother walks away without so much as a backwards glance as I am dragged out of my home and thrown into the transport.
