For eight years, my parents made me leave whenever my brother’s fiancée visited. “She’s from a g0od family. Don’t embarrass us,” Mom said. So 0ne weekend, I disappeared for good. Four years later, they finally discovered where I’d gone.

For years, I convinced myself that maybe they were only trying to protect Julian’s future.

Maybe they were ashamed.

Maybe they didn’t know how to explain what had happened to me.

Maybe pretending I lived somewhere else was easier than confronting their own cruelty.

Then, six months before everything collapsed, Clara walked into the nursery where I worked.

Green Valley Nursery was the only place where I felt normal.

I worked with soil, shrubs, trees, and flowers.

Plants didn’t care about family reputations.

They didn’t ask why I had once needed help.

If you gave them light, water, and room, they grew.