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Actions should come with consequences—everyone learns that. But why did standing up for herself always backfire on Rose Hunter? She wanted nothing more than for her abusive family to face the consequences for their treatment of her, yet no matter how many times she pointed out the cruelty, they refused to acknowledge it. Accountability, it seemed, was a foreign concept to them.
Her family’s daily disrespect had left her feeling less than human as if her feelings and desires didn’t matter. They expected her to follow their rules and boundaries, yet they didn’t care about respecting hers. It was hypocritical, and worse, it was suffocating.
Take her twin sister, Lily, for example. Rose had made it clear—her sister was not to visit her internet pages or comment on the artwork others created for her on DA. But Lily didn’t care. She trampled all over Rose’s boundaries, arguing that the internet was free and she could do whatever she wanted. Worse, whenever Lily showed up, she either insulted people or acted like a know-it-all, criticizing Rose’s original characters and undermining her in front of others.
It was infuriating. Lily never said anything genuinely supportive. Instead, she often made Rose feel incompetent, like she couldn’t handle her own relationships with the artists she admired. On top of that, she insulted strangers, disrespected their work, and left Rose to deal with the fallout—hate mail from frustrated artists who couldn’t understand why Lily was so rude.
As for her mother, Iris? She constantly overstepped Rose’s boundaries, too, especially regarding money. Rose had made it clear: her money wasn’t going to fuel her mother’s smoking habit. But that didn’t stop Iris. Whenever she wanted cigarette money, she bullied Rose into submission, disregarding her daughter’s wishes and putting her own needs above everything else.
Years of degrading treatment had worn Rose down. Her sister had a history of getting violent, and her mother had struck her before. Her family’s constant yelling, cursing, and trolling had left her terrified of provoking them. Standing up for herself was a double-edged sword—if they ever faced consequences for their behavior, she feared they’d turn it back on her. They’d shame her, call her a liar, and isolate her from the only connections she had left.
It was a nightmare. Rose was stuck between a rock and a hard place, yearning for justice yet terrified of what might happen if she sought it. She feared the day they might physically hurt her again or worse if things escalated.
So what was she supposed to do? Report the abuse and risk retaliation, or stay silent and hope the situation never spiraled into something more dangerous? Every day was a question of survival and the constant fear that her family would never change—or worse, things would get even darker.
What do you do when standing up for yourself could cost you everything? When you're trapped between speaking out or staying silent in fear?