I am a soldier’s baby girl, conceived in pools of tears and abandoned hope. I am dressed in shiny war wounds and broken hearts. I live forever in the black and white memories of a past I can hardly recall, and one in which my father will never live.

Shattering glass and echoing vibrations played music to my ears as I would sit on hardwood floors playing with my Sophie doll. Vague scenes of my mother crying, clothed in the secrecy of the night, flashed across my mind as I tried to remember his face.

The only solid evidence of him existed in a crippled photograph that survived the fire. The rest were destroyed by a hatred that did not belong to us.

Fury rose in the pit of my stomach and overtook my hands as I clenched the aged piece of paper to my heart. I sat rigid, eyes closed, fighting through barriers to days I convinced myself I could somehow remember.

I was only four years old when the corrupt minds of humanity stole the life of my father, and shattered the foundations of my family forever.