I didn’t know what “normal” was. I wasn’t allowed to go to other kids’ houses; if I had friends, they had to come to mine. I never saw how other families lived, so I had nothing to compare my life to. And when I questioned things—or felt like something wasn’t right—I was told it could be worse. I was told that if I ever ended up in foster care, I’d see just how bad things could really be. So you learn to stop questioning. You learn to stay quiet. You learn to accept what

I never imagined watching my life fall apart could feel so raw… so immediate. There I was in Seattle, caught in the middle of a divorce that didn’t just end—it stretched into a decade-long battle. My ex-husband and his girlfriend were earning nearly $300k a year combined.