Chapter Two: The Child Left Behind
I was born to a sixteen-year-old mother who had no support, no money, and no guidance. The boy who got her pregnant vanished with a few dollars and a cheap vase of flowers, leaving me in a world without a father. No crib, no stroller, no baby clothes, just survival. Every day was a fight to be seen, to be fed, to be loved. And somewhere in all of that chaos, I had to learn what it meant to exist.
Chapter One: Before the Beginning
Before I was born, a storm had already torn through the women who came before me. My grandmother was murdered when my mother was just fifteen. The man who did it walked free and became a preacher. My mother, sixteen and pregnant with me, had no father, no support, only a grieving mother and a world that demanded she survive. I never knew my grandmother, only glimpses of her in black-and-white photos, fierce and fearless. And yet, even in her absence, she cast a shadow over my life. I was born into loss, into pain, and into a legacy I would have to confront to survive.