She had gotten over her two years of falling apart,

gotten over the smoking of 30 cigarettes a day and 28 at night,

gotten over Stockholm, daily panic nightmares, fear,

gotten over excuses, lies, the walking out, her and her kids’ cries, everyone’s heart breaking

gotten over the attachments, the ruined holidays, the threats and their aftermath, the bodily harm,

gotten over being trapped, used, abused, and her purpose your sexual fantasy and pleasure even when she said no,

gotten over the friends who her kids called aunt and uncle as if true relations, turning their backs and believing his lies that she was crazy when she was dead-serious sane,

they had all gotten over the way he got over people, and onto them when unwanted and unwarranted,

gotten over giving in, giving up on themselves, like others had, giving, giving, giving until they had given it all.

instead of giving in anymore, they found that they could get away from the institutions who say they believe women and their children but don’t: Title IX’s supposed care for students, police officers, courts, social investigators who thought their story was preposterous, rehearsed, and part of her bad motives.

she had gotten over caring whether they believed her, wasting her words and time with people who wouldn’t fact-check evidence or, worse, lied about her based on hearsay, straw man arguments, and “diagnoses,”

she always knew she would never be what he said, words she read aloud to her friends shortly after they started dating, 23 years before she unlocked the cage in which he kept them and finally got away from his triggering

and she relieved them of the burden of ever needing to confront his demons again for him by deciding to allow him to tell on himself because even his sugarcoated narrative can’t hide what he is and had done to them.