Prologue

She was frightened. Her whispering was loud in my ears for just a moment, telling me things that I couldn't comprehend. I was only three years old when this happened, so I didn't know English very well. All I could translate was, “Annabel, Annabel, Annabel” over and over again. “Annabel, Annabel, Annabel” my mother shrieked silently.

She packed random things into a large tote bag, such as our first family picture with the three of us, my favorite bright blue rattle, and some of my clothes. Suddenly, after she hushed me and repeated that it would be okay, she threw me under the crib; I was so confused. She then kissed each one of my fingertips quickly but passionately until a large man came barging into the room with a knife in his hand.

I couldn't see much under the crib, but what I could see changed my entire life.

He stomped angrily over to my mother curled up in a tight ball on the floor with her hands shielding her face. 

The last thing I heard was a feminine scream coming from my mother. Blood dripped onto my Barbie playhouse and the wood floor.

As soon as she turned pale and fell into a melting pool of blood, I knew that something had happened to her, but the man dragged her slowly out of the room, causing a trail of red liquid to appear on the wood panels.

Her hand was sprawled out onto the blood, but before she left the room, I quickly held her hand, but my fingers only slid right through hers.

That night, my mother slept with her eyes open.