The Orphanage by the Lake

by Daniel G. Miller

It’s just that when you used to be better, everything about you feels worse.

The assault doesn’t end when the attack ends. It stays with you, hiding behind every door you open, every corner you turn, even haunting your dreams.

But the world tends to take our hopes and dreams and steadily beat them down until they become something else entirely.

One of the first rules of being a private investigator is don’t trust your client. Half of what they tell you is a lie, and the other half is half-true.

But part of being a young woman in an older man’s world is picking your battles, and this is one I won’t win. Sometimes you have to eat shit.

People think that we’re defined by the big moments in our lives: births, deaths, successes, and failures. But I think the little moments matter more because those are the moments that shape your self-perception and who you want to become.

The person who’s taking these girls might be right in front of you, and you wouldn’t even notice.”

“You can hope for the good times, but it’s the bad times that make you.”

Fear is like a cancer—it starts with an actual moment but then multiplies and gains hold of you until it’s bending your experience of everything around you.

‘To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.’