Three weeks after Damien's hearing, I sat in the main counseling room with five new arrivals, watching them slowly begin to relax as they realized they were truly safe.
"The hardest part," I said gently, "is believing you deserve this safety. That you're not somehow responsible for what happened to you."
A young woman named Sara nodded, her arms wrapped tight around herself. "My mate said I was too sensitive. That if I just tried harder to please him-"
"That's what they all say," Celeste interrupted from her seat beside me. She'd become one of our most effective advocates, her own recent trauma making her uniquely qualified to help others. "They make you think it's your fault so you'll stay. So you'll keep trying to fix something that was never broken in the first place."
I watched Sar
