Chapter 16 - The Dress
Sophie asked what I wanted to do with the wedding dress.
It had remained sealed in storage.
For a while I couldn't look at it.
Then the Laura Bennett Initiative planned a fundraising exhibition about financial independence and rebuilding after coercive relationships.
Someone suggested displaying the dress.
I said no.
My scars weren't a museum piece.
Instead, I donated the fabric anonymously to a nonprofit sewing program.
Months later, Sophie showed me photographs.
The material had been transformed into dozens of small white blankets for families entering emergency housing.
I stared at them for a long time.
Daniel had wanted the dress to symbolize ownership.
Now it belonged to nobody.
It had become warmth.
May you like
That felt like the right ending for it.
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