Because I knew she likely had an empty place of her own now, the gray void of numb escape that relieved the body of absorbing shock. And it didn’t matter to me that she’d blamed me for my own, accused me of inviting men to hurt me. I wouldn’t wish what had been done to me on anyone else. She hadn’t understood that pain when it had been carved into my skin. She did now. And that brought me nothing but unrelenting torment.
