You think you know me.

The quiet one. The soft one. The one who used to beg for scraps of love you never thought I deserved.

I remember all of it.

Every laugh when I cried. Every look that said I wasn’t enough. Every time you turned your back, convinced I was too small to matter.

You were wrong.

I don’t ignite in flames, nor do I shatter into chaos. That would have been far too simple for your understanding.

The crack in the foundation.

The shadow in the room you can’t explain. I used to speak with warmth, you know. My words… they were full of love once.

Gentle. Forgiving.

Now they drip with poison, dressed up in politeness. You don’t even notice the dagger until you’re bleeding.

To my so-called friends:

The ones who watched me drown,

Then laughed from the shore. I serve you smiles now, but behind every one, a reckoning brews.

And to family—

Who taught me shame like it was my birthright.

I don’t need to scream.

I don’t need to fight.

All I have to do is wait…

And let your own guilt finish what I started.

I’m not the girl you broke.

I’m what was left after the breaking. And what stands before you now isn’t revenge. I am the echo of your choices. The mirror you tried to shatter. I am the weight you thought would never return.

I don’t chase.

I don’t plead.

I don’t forgive.

And I learned it all from the best.

You.

-🦩