His phone number no longer worked.
His social media accounts vanished.
It was as if he had erased himself from existence.
And just like that, I became a teenage mother raising a baby alone.
The years that followed were brutal.
I worked breakfast shifts at a diner.
I cleaned offices at night.
Sometimes I worked three jobs at the same time.
I learned how to smile while worrying about rent.
How to pretend I wasn’t hungry so my daughter could have an extra portion at dinner.
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