VALORIA WILDEROSE
"All I've ever wanted was for you to love me… for all of you to love me. I took all the shame and pain, I made myself believe I deserved it. Why couldn't you just love me, even for a little bit?" I feel tears welling inside me too. Feelings I thought I'd killed resurfacing again.
I hate how easily they come back. How one confrontation can undo years of burying them.
She almost believes me — almost gives in to my vulnerability for a sliver of a moment — before her heart hardens just as fast as it had softened.
"Because of you I never had a mother," she confesses through bitter tears and clenched teeth. "Because you were born from her infidelity, she was hated and scorned. Even when I came along nothing changed for her. Because of you, she died alone from a broken heart and was labeled a whore. I had no mother."
The words hit me harder than I expected. Not because they're cruel — but because for the first time, I hear pain behind them. Real pain.
