Chapter 16 - MY BODY WAS NEVER THE PROBLEM
Therapy forced me to confront something deeper.
Even after learning I was never infertile, I still felt defective.
Years of treatment had trained my body into shame.
Every injection.
Every failed cycle.
Every pitying look.
Truth did not instantly undo conditioning.
I had to rebuild my relationship with my body.
Not because I had a baby.
Important.
Motherhood did not prove worth.
Fertility did not prove femininity.
The real healing was recognizing that even if I had been infertile, I still would not have deserved abandonment or humiliation.
That changed everything.
The scandal had tempted me into a satisfying reversal:
You called me barren, but look—I had your child.
Powerful.
Also dangerous.
Because what about women who cannot?
They are not less.
So I stopped using Lily as proof I had value.
She was my daughter.
May you like
Not evidence.
That distinction mattered.
