They wanted me to say they had been in shock, that the book was exaggerated, that I had forgiven them. They wanted me to fix their shattered lives. I opened my laptop, highlighted all forty-two voicemails they had left me, and permanently deleted them. Then, I blocked their numbers.

I couldn’t bring Ethan, Lily, or Noah back. My heart will forever have a massive, unfillable hole in it. But as I watched the sun set over the ocean, knowing my parents were finally experiencing a fraction of the isolation and ruin they had forced onto me, I finally took a full, deep breath.

For the first time in six months, I slept through the night.