The Heart of a Mother

by Julie Clark

All my life, I’d made it a point to respect the boundaries of others. But now I could see how easy it was to move that line. And once you’d pushed a boundary, how easy it was to push it a little further. And a little further after that. How simple it was to ignore the word no, especially when it was never actually said.

“Did you ever consider that what happened to me was a trauma? That I’ve spent my entire life carrying that around inside of me?”