cnu-At my fortieth birthday party, my sister swung a baseball bat into…

the number had sounded huge. Final. Almost frightening in its weight. But the real sentence, I learned, was not the one handed to Vanessa. The real sentence was the truth we all had to live with afterward.

Vanessa had to live with the fact that one violent moment revealed who she was.

My parents had to live with the family they chose and the daughter continue reading …