The Architect of My Own Survival

Grieve the things that are really yours to grieve.

Trust again, not because you’ve forgotten, but because refusing to is the last victory you’d be handing the person who wronged you, and you are done handing that man anything at all.

I am Delphine Hartman.

I did not win by becoming a monster in the dark, the way the man who wronged me expected — I won in the daylight, with a forensic accountant and a document examiner and a father who taught me that the strongest lock assumes the worst.

They thought they could break me and hide their theft inside my grief.

Instead they reminded me exactly who I am.

I am not a victim.

I am the architect of my own survival — and this time, I built it to hold.

THE END.