I was just a kid, and he was my stepbrother. He touched me and my brother every time we went to visit. I told on him, but my mom couldn’t help me. She was too afraid of my father to stop visitation. I told my father, and he beat me for “lying.” I’ll never forget the smirk on my stepbrother’s face when he claimed innocence and my dad took it out on me. That look shows up sometimes in my dreams. As an adult, I told my stepfather, and he said he didn’t think it was as bad as I made it out to be. If I was lying or it wasn’t that bad… then why does it still haunt me?

-Bea