I had been alone with a newborn before, but as I held Lila in my arms while the doors of the bus closed-I had never felt more alone. However, I couldn't risk Luke's anger coming across to her. And so as he snores beside me, I slid away with a simple bag of necessities and boarded the first bus I could to the farthest town I could find. It would bring me to Tennessee.
I had no friends or family, but instead, the ambition to make it on my own without the aid of another person. I knew what I had been capable; what I had survived, and I knew I could endure whatever was to come. But as I set Lila on a makeshift crib in a hotel room rented for three nights, I sat on the edge of my bed and cried. I had spent ten hours questioning every decision I had made. However, for the first time, I was put
