Salt to the Sea

by Ruta Sepetys

“Per aspera ad astra, Papa,” I whispered. Through hardship to the stars. It was a Latin phrase he used whenever I complained that something was difficult.

So I learned to appear happy, even if I wasn’t.

I became good at pretending. I became so good that after a while the lines blurred between my truth and fiction. And sometimes, when I did a really good job of pretending, I even fooled myself.

Some things are better ignored.