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.