No one defended Lori.
Even Aunt Doreen suddenly found her coffee cup fascinating.
Weeks later, Mason and I were in counseling.
He was finally setting real limits with Lori without me having to ask.
Harriet texted me every week. Cheryl sent one short apology, which I accepted, and I gently closed that chapter.
I had almost lost myself fighting a rival who never existed.
The family I had been searching for had been quietly forming around me the whole time.
Peace, I learned, wasn’t the absence of conflict.
It was the presence of people willing to stand beside you in it.
