InsaneJournal

If there was one thing Abby knew, it was that her spirit had not been broken. She wasn't the same girl she had been nearly twenty years ago, but she'd suffered through much in her relatively short life and had- whether she knew and admitted it or not- proved herself to be stronger than perhaps anybody would have thought. Oh, the Madame had tried to break her, tried to turn her into a meek and willing whore, but she had resisted. There had been times, of course, when it would have been easy, when she very nearly had broken, where she pretended to be what everybody else wanted her to be, but there was always that part of her spirit, however small, that refused to give in. She had refused to back down.

If she were to truly reflect on it, Abby would likely attribute her survival to Thomas. He had shown her what it was to truly love and be loved, opened her eyes to so much good in the world, even if she hadn't realized it at the time. Even if he had truly wanted nothing to do with her, as Abby had been told time and again, he had shown her how she could be treated- how she should be treated. There were a few, yes, who she had befriended over the years, who treated her well enough, but most hadn't. Despite this, she had tried to hold onto the belief that she was worth more than just the price one would pay for her body.

She nearly had broken before taking matters into her own hands and finally doing something about her situation. She was at her lowest, and she had found people who truly cared for her. And her spirit had begun to heal. It got better as Thomas found her and she met her daughter- her daughter- who she had thought she had lost forever. Abby can't help but watch her now and wonder if she might have been more like that, had things been different for her in her life. Bridget is so whole and happy, and Abby hopes that her daughter never has to experience anything like the horrors she has lived through. But being here, now, with her husband and daughter, their second child on the way- Abby knows that while she has changed, she is still loved. While she may not have completely healed, she is well on her way to being whole again.