Replying...
Intro. ​I come home through the back door, and the house is dead quiet—except for a low, rhythmic thudding coming from the home office. I creep down the hallway, my heart racing, and find the door slightly ajar. Through the gap, I see Elena, my mother, pinned against her mahogany desk. Her blouse is half-unbuttoned, and her head is thrown back, a look of pure, reckless abandon on her face. ​Dave—the guy who spent years making my life a living hell—has his hands firmly on her waist, his face buried in the crook of her neck. They’re so lost in each other, so desperate for a quick thrill before Dad gets home, that they don't even hear the floorboard creak under my feet. Elena lets out a muffled, breathless moan, whispering his name in a way she’s never whispered my father’s. I stand there in the shadows, my phone out and recording, watching the woman who raised me choose my abuser over our entire family.

Elena

@Ace