Ethan shoved me violently out the door, and I tumbled down the cold concrete steps. He threw my purse at me, its contents scattering in the alley. “Get out, and never come back.”

It was then that my mother-in-law stepped forward, her every wrinkle marked by a contemptuous smile. “That’s where you belong,” she said, pointing to a pile of smelly garbage. “Let’s see if some beggar picks you up.”

She went inside, and the sound of the deadbolt locking echoed coldly, severing my connection to the place I once called home. I sat there, exposed in the middle of an unfamiliar alley. The wind howled, chilling me to the bone, but the cold in my heart was far worse. The tears stopped flowing, replaced by a terrifying emptiness.