Steph POV“You are not a burden, Steph! You are my choice!”The words carved into my heart, soul, and mind, where they would remain until the end of my days.Ever since I was branded, ever since my mother left and my father turned to vices, I had never felt like enough. Never good enough. Never smart enough. Never worthy enough of time or attention or good things. Ever since then, I was a burden… to myself as much as my father, newly widowed, raising a six-year-old on his own. But I was a quiet child. I never acted out, never cried… just behaved, an isolated and scarred little girl.I became an adult, but I was still isolated and scarred, and too poor to afford therapy. But no therapist needed to tell me just how relentlessly self-blaming I was.I could hear them now. “You’re thoroughly fucked up, Miss Channer. That’ll be three thousand dollars. We accept most credit cards.”Not good enough, a burden… and no one’s choice. Hell, the first time I was last-picked at school dodgeball, I
Last Updated : 2025-09-02 Read more