Chapter 122

’I’ve survived things people don’t clap for.

Not the kind of survival that gets headlines or standing ovations. The kind where you still get out of bed, even when your body feels like it’s carrying a hundred invisible pounds. Where you look in the mirror and see bruises...some on your skin, most on your spirit...but still manage to put on a face the world won’t question.

It’s strange, isn’t it? How good we become at hiding pain. How easy it is to say “I’m fine” when you’ve practiced it for years. You learn to smile on cue, to laugh at the right moment, to hold your tears until you’re alone... if they even come anymore. Sometimes the ache is too old for crying. Sometimes it’s just a quiet throb beneath your ribs that no one else can hear.

I’ve survived the kind of silence that doesn’t soothe. The kind that roars in your ears when everyone has left, and you’re sitting with the echo of all the things you couldn’t say. I’ve walked into rooms and felt the chill of judgm