those years returned in my dreams,

face as I recalled the nightmare

t by an old man to be a young girl forced into servi

work-washing heaps of dirty clothes, feeding pi

heavy iron chain

follow him around, taking the brun

scratch, they would b

urled up under h

semblance of affection grew betwee

hoping to escape, but I was caught at

two bamboo sticks broke, leavi

was fra

me capable of caring for him, they wo

cape, I was chained in the pig

y, my eyes filled with desperati

corner of the sty, I

ght me a bowl of sour, moldy rice, cover

my starved stomach cou

o the bowl, sneering, "If you don't want to

f life slipping away again-I wanted

swallowed the rotte

he bet! The idiot's wife can even ea

, I vomited a

uffered from seve

nd began waking early each day to make a pot of p

finding such an exceptiona

had ties to Sonya, or I w

my parents and brother to her, unwilling to

rned from abroad, and only then did I dis

saw Louis visibly shaken, smo

or months for the sak

d then-against Sonya, I would

ind Louis, who hadn't slept a

eagerly served me a

isn't well. Drink up the

then I noticed the thermal lunchbo

riefly as he tried to hid

Mom asked me to make porridge fo

orridge, were you caring for your pregnant wife or wo