No Longer His Doll

I loved Michael so fully, a quiet burning devotion for my youth pastor, believing he was my soulmate. Then he left me for his "true love." In a fit of desperate jealousy, I hired men to just `scare` him, but it went horribly wrong. He suffered a head injury, waking with amnesia, claiming I was the only woman he remembered, the only one he loved. Guilt gnawed at me, but I clung to his twisted miracle, marrying him fast. My mother warned me, her voice weak but firm: "Sarah, this isn't right." I dismissed her, blinded by supposed love. Months later, in an isolated cabin during brutal childbirth, I heard Michael' s voice, cold and ruthless. He confessed his amnesia was a lie, a scheme with my stepsister, Jessica, his true love. They planned to steal my baby and force me into degradation. My baby girl was murdered by him, yet I was forced to breastfeed Jessica' s child, a constant, sickening humiliation. My mother' s warnings echoed, a devastating realization setting in: I was just a pawn, a "milk machine." But when Jessica cruelly revealed my own child had been slowly poisoned, something in me snapped. Broken, but not defeated, Mama V – an old friend of my late mother – recognized me when Michael dumped me at a decrepit city club, fully intending to sell me into a life I couldn't bear. She offered me a choice: sing for my life, or be swallowed by despair. I chose to sing. And I chose to live.