In time, the remaining trust assets were redistributed among my relatives; some recovered what they had lost, and some never did.

I did not get everything back either.

There are things that cannot be returned: the illusion of a loving childhood, the belief that home is a safe place, the easy trust you give the world before you learn what people are capable of.

Those are gone, and I have stopped waiting for them to come back.

But I gained something I had not known I was missing.

Freedom.