Serafina

After he left, I stood frozen for a long time, afraid to move for fear I would break into a million tiny pieces. But I couldn’t stop the tears from silently tracking down my cheeks. Or the way my hands shook when I finally reached for a tissue out of the box in the middle of the sink.

My eye makeup was running down my face, revealing streaks of the purplish bruise that darkened the skin below my left eye. A parting gift from my father when I’d tried one last time to talk him out of this farce of a marriage. Tired of my arguing with him, he’d...