Chapter 172: The Depth Of Riley's Trauma

RILEY

I hadn't even noticed it was missing until that moment. The thick metal chain that Mama Sophia had made me wear every day for as long as I could remember - the one that made it hard for me to talk about certain things, hard to remember certain details - it was gone.

I remembered having it when Mama Sophia pushed me off that cliff, remembered the weight of it around my neck as I fell. But somehow, sometime since then, someone had taken it off me. I had no idea how or when it had happened.

"Riley," my real mama said...