Bloom for Me When I'm Gone

When I was seven, I stole a phone and called my mother's family. That was how I finally got her out of the compound where my father had kept her prisoner.

When my grandfather stormed into the cellar, Mom was chained by the neck, with bloodstained whips scattered at her feet. He beat my father nearly to death. The man spent the rest of his life paralyzed and bedridden.

Before Mom got into the car, she reached for me through her tears. "Evan, come with me."

I grabbed the hem of her coat—and then I remembered my previous life.