fiction

Recent Stories

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99 My father watched my stepmother try to smash a metal chair into my head—and he did nothing. It happened in front of an auditorium full of soldiers, just moments after I received the Purple Heart. I threw up my left arm to protect my face, heard my bone crack, and collapsed beside the stage while she screamed that I was “trash in uniform.” But as I lay there in agony, I looked straight at my father, waiting for him to protect his daughter just once. He lowered his eyes.