Good Girl Gone Bad
Mom with her wild auburn hair whipping in the wind, Dad grinning beside her, and me as a gangly teenager, my arms wrapped around a much younger Aofie.
They looked so alive, so unbreakable. A perfect family portrait, or so I'd always thought.
I stared at the photo under the dim bulb's flickering glow, my breath catching. My eyes lingered on Mom's wrist, where a bracelet of seashells partially obscured her skin. I squinted, tilting the photo closer to the light.
There, peeking out from beneath the shells, was a tattoo — a bold, stylized letter V, etched in delicate black ink, the lines curving like a serpent's tail.