These Vows That Bind Us: These Vows Series (Vol I)

I was thirteen years old when I learned what it means to be born a woman inside the world of made men. I learned it watching my mother die at the hands of brutality. In this world, women are not protected. We are positioned. Moved like pieces across a board by hands that call it love, call it tradition, call it family.

I learned that softness is a liability. That the only thing more dangerous than being born into this life is being born into it without power.

My father spent years keeping m...