Katie shakes her head. "I'm just glad you don't have to be alone with this," she says. Too much of her life, she had to face the darkest moments alone. As a child, at least, when she lost her father, she had her family around her. When things got difficult with David, though, she turned inward. Every time she got the strength to complain to her friends about the way he treated her, it would falter again when he came home to her. She let herself say it was nothing, that they would work it out, too many times. But that's just taught her to see a little more clearly, or so she hopes. Some things can't be saved, but others can.

"And it helps me, too," she adds after a moment. "I never talk about him to anyone. But at least it feels like it wasn't a complete waste if I can help my friends." She'll take what she learned the hard way and help others. It feels like the best way to avenge what was done to her: to reclaim her own life and help others do the same.