Fixing the Broken

Rebuilding What Isn't There

Bella's story is very complicated and very unusual. To start things off, she has a step brother who is quite older than her. His name is Charles and he has always been very hostile. When Bella's parents got married, Charles immediately became very jealous and hated Abbey, Bella's mom. With this hate came threats, physical fights, attacks, and many calls to the authorities. There were many times Bella feared for her life and the lives of her parents. The very first memory Bella has is of Charles holding his fists up to her mom and threatening to kill her while in front of Bella's entire family. Needless to say, Abbey and Bella have not had the best relationship due to the stress caused by Charles. Bella has never felt close to her mom and has truly felt very unliked by her mom. Abbey was always consumed in the fear of Charles so much that she never could be a normal mom. Bella was always consumed in the fear of her parents getting divorced and her potentially being murdered. Years of therapy could not begin to fix the years of fear that had built up in Bella. She had a fear of going to certain stores and being out with friends in certain areas because she feared even seeing Charles. He acted like he loved her, being her step brother, and she believed it because she was young and the violence was hidden from her as best as it could be. She would see and experience certain bursts of confrontation, but none of it made sense to her because a lot was done behind her back. The older she got the more events became exposed to her. There is no need to share gruesome details, but it was very harmful and she did not know how to cope with it. She watched her parents fight numerous times, at least once every day. Sometimes it would lead to physical violence and other times would lead to her dad leaving for long periods of time. Being a religious family, this lead Bella to become doubtful and angry at God. He was supposed to be good, but the situation was far from it. God was the only thing she found hope in, so losing that would mean losing her will for living. She felt forced to belief in God because if she didn't she knew what would happen to her. Crying was something that Bella was very accustom to. When she was seven, her parents had a little boy named Jacob. Bella tried her best to keep Jacob unaware of the situation as much as possible because she knew how much it hurt her. Thankfully by the time Jacob was old enough to be aware, the situation had calmed. Charles was eventually put into a group home where he could receive the right help and medication. Even with him gone, the pain and fear still remained.  The damage relationships still remained damaged. Bella also dealt with the abandonment of a former best friend. Casey was Bella's best friend since she was four years old and then suddenly, around the seventh grade, Casey stopped talking to Bella and left her heartbroken. Someone who had promised to always be there and help her had decided she had better people to be with. Bella watched her former best friend become a fake and cold hearted person that she didn't know. It hurt, but Bella grew from it. Going through the loss of a good friend effected her forever in every other relationship she would go through. She grew in pain, but she also let the pain control her.