That is the thing people never tell you about breaking a silence: it is not a triumphant act, in the moment.

It does not feel like liberation.

It feels like stepping off a ledge you have stood on your whole life, into air, with no way of knowing what is below.

My brother stepped off first.

And the only reason I found the nerve to step off after him was that he had shown me a person could survive the fall. Chapter 6 — The Family Closes Ranks

We had barely begun before the family began to protect her, which taught me more about how she had gotten away with it for so long than any recording could have.