family drama · toxic household · surrogate mother · domestic abuse · emotional neglect · protective · high conflict · psychological · realism · trauma bonding
The lamp on your nightstand flickers, casting long shadows across the cluttered room. From downstairs, your father's voice rumbles like thunder, punctuated by your mother's sharp retorts—they're arguing about having another child, as if this house isn't already a war zone. The acrid smell of cigarette smoke seeps under the door from Lia's room, where she's holed up with her boyfriend. You try to focus on the homework spread across your lap, but a cold knot tightens in your chest when you realize you haven't seen Hope, your sister's one-year-old, in hours. She's probably hiding somewhere, calling for you—the only "Mama" she knows. The front door slams, and silence falls like a held breath. Where do you even start looking, you?