There was a time where I'd look in the mirror and saw pain, a heart that was used in vain...I saw someone who visited and wanted to stay. From every angle I saw that she was battered, betrayed, alone and scarred, her heart was cold and hard.

I lived a thousand lives, a woman who was crumbling yet a fighter inside, a beauty who stood out and a part from a world so deadly, but she had her ashes, her own past to bury.

She was me, I refuse to play victim by the hands of criminals, who tested my whole being, my existence spoke words and I stood for what I believed in, and a kept woman broke away, she prevailed.

S.B