Counterfeit

by Kirstin Chen

I’m merely suggesting that all of us fixate on certain kinds of cheating, while willfully ignoring other kinds.

in hiding nothing, she forced me to consider the possibility that she had nothing to hide.

Ava’s entire life could be boiled down to this: great on paper, rotten everywhere else.

to share one’s secrets is to force others to bear your burden; to stay silent is to spare them.

Look, I’m thirty-seven years old and, I’m sure we can all agree, way past being able to credibly blame my parents for who I am today. But that, I think, is the point. I’d never really grown up. I was still that nerdy teenager who dared not dream her own dreams, who craved approval from whoever would offer it.

She made the choice to trade his life for hers; at the very least, she owes it to him to feel every ounce of remorse deep within her bones.

“Everyone has a price. The trick is figuring out what it is without overpaying.”