Unmasking Their Lies

The sharp, chemical tang of turpentine used to smell like hope, but not today.

I woke up eighteen again, just weeks before my art school scholarship deadline-the one my mother "helped" me meet by giving me paint stripper instead of turpentine, ruining my masterpiece.

My family, ever the loving wolves, had blamed me, calling me ungrateful and a failure, twisting the knife until I believed I deserved the heartbreak and a lifetime of mediocrity in a cold, lonely apartment.

I spent years internalizing their gaslighting, wondering why I was never good enough, always the villain in their…