Had you been lying all along? Mum gently stroked my hair. I whispered into her shoulder. I can't go back. Not yet. I can't leave. And she held my head tight to her chest and wrapped her arms around me. You don't have to, she said, rocking me. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, not anymore. And I cried.

Stolen (ed. 2014)