I guess now is the time to let it all out. We had all taken over the living room, sitting on the sofa and on the carpet in a circle. Everyone was waiting for me to speak up for 10 minutes. But I was completely silent; all you could hear was everyone's breathing and the tic toc of the clock.

I continued fumbling with my hands, unsure of where to begin or, more accurately, how to begin. I felt her hand hold mine, preventing me from fumbling with my hands.

I turned my head to face her.She was staring right back at me, and all I could see was love in her eyes. Unnoticed, she interlaced our hands and tightened the grip, assuring me that she is present. She is here.

"Everything in my life changed on April 6th. My mother died when I was 12 years old from blood cancer. We didn't have enough money to cover her medicine costs. My father took out loans and worked many jobs simply to keep my mother alive. She was the one who was keeping our family together. But everything changed when she died. To deal with my mother's passing, my father chose the wrong path." I groaned, releasing my hands from her grip and dragging them down my face. I tried to fight back my tears as I looked up at the ceiling, but they just flew down without my consent. My mind kept replaying memories from my childhood.

"You can't catch me, mama, you can't catch me," she says. My laughing could be heard ringing throughout the house. The only term that could explain how I felt. Happiness.

"Miss Lydia Grey, you stop right there," my mother said from behind me.I took a break at the marble kitchen counter table. When I started running again, my mother approached, but before I could go very far, she picked me up and spun me around.

"What's going on here?" my father said happily, wriggling free from my mother's grip and running towards him, begging him to take me up and spin me again.

"Stop, Daddy, the world is spinning." I said, and they both laughed.

This was my family. A really happy family.

Which came to an end.

"Are you okay, Lydia?" Sira asks, touching my cheeks and brushing away my tears.

I nodded and whispered a tiny yea loud enough for her to hear. But she didn't believe me when she scooped me up and sat me on her lap, squeezing me tightly. I sobbed quietly on her shoulder, her soft tiny murmurs accompanying me.

"It's okay, everything is and will be fine now," She said as I pulled my head from her shoulder and turned to face her. She extended her hand and touched my face with her gentle fingertips. I felt at ease as I leaned into her hand.

"After my mother died, my father stopped talking to me, began drinking, something he had never done before, and began hanging out with the wrong group of men. From working two jobs it went to one, and I still don't know how I earned the money to pay for my education, at least not until one day. He was in the living room with some of his friends, or should I call druggies? "I laughed as I remembered the darkest and most traumatizing experience of my life.

"I walked downstairs to get a drink of water, which I shouldn't have done because I could hear people shouting while walking downstairs, but by the time I changed my mind, he had seen me and called me out." I took a deep breath to calm myself down. Hearing his words in my ears and my mind. I closed my eyes, that none of it was true.

In the past Lydia just a bad past left behind.

Sira's arms wrapped around my chest, drawing me closer to her, and smelling her perfume made me relax a little, knowing I was in good hands. I proceeded, inhaling her scent once again as confirmation.

"I approached him just to have him grab my arm and draw me closer to them in the living room. I attempted to release my arm from his grip, but it was difficult. Then he asked me a question I wish I hadn't answered.

"Lydia, do you want to go to school?" he asked, to which I nodded. He smiled, but I knew something was wrong because it wasn't a pleasant grin; it made my stomach churn and twist in fear.

"He said, Lydia, daddy is growing too old to make enough money to pay for school expenses, and he asked for my help. I nodded my head, tears streaming down my cheeks, thinking I'd do anything to get him to go so I could flee back to my room. So he continued, pointing to the unknown men with grins on their faces in the living room and said those men will help us only if I do all they say without saying no."

Sira stopped me before I could continue, holding me even tighter, which hurt a little for a second, but I turned my face to see her tears at the brim of her eyes.

"Please don't—don't continue Lydia," she begged, her voice shaking at the middle. I shook my head, cradling her cheeks and kissing her on the forehead.

"I have to baby for us, if only to let you know the whole of me." I wiped her tears as I looked around the room, everyone staring at us with love and, I'm sure, guilt and hatred. To brighten up everyone's mood I said.

"Now all of you don't you dare back out on me when I am talking about my past." I chuckled a little. Which let everyone let out a tiny giggle and grins on their faces. I returned to Sira, kissing her forehead once again, and began my talk.

" I said yes, I'd do it, and the next thing I know, all three men are walking towards me, one of them handing my father a $100 bill and continuing to move towards me, bending down and scooping me up and taking me into the nearest room. I remember yelling and shouting,

"No, I don't want to help." I'm don't want to go to school, daddy. I recall yelling for him to help me, but he didn't. Those men sexually abused me. For a whole month, not until I ran away from my house one night, took some money from him, and slept on the street, then one day couple saw me sleeping on the footpath and asked me questions, dropped me off at an orphanage for a better life, and visited me, but that also came to an end. Maybe they grew bored of me, but I met Sarah in school, and we went to college together, where I met Derek the excellent version, but you all know how that worked out."

"But then I met a beautiful girl in my school where I work and now I love her to death," I said, looking back at Sira. "who saved me from my husband and my past," I said, looking directly in her eyes, but that smile vanished when I heard two people at the same time.

"Those were my parents"

"Your father dead"