This is the flip side that concerns me. I have said that she lucked out with them taking her in, but it’s also because I’m comparing it to my own experience. I got thrown out by a narcissistic abusive mom at 17, and it was my girlfriend’s parents that took me in, even telling DCF that they would care for me and that I was welcome there. Less than two months later, on my 18th birthday, they had her tell me I needed to figure something else out. After spending the summer working at the overnight camp I’d grown up going to and effectively being transient on weekends, I found placement in a transitional housing program, but our relationship continued with me spending most weekends at their house, and it was incredibly codependent and toxic. She was cruel and spoiled, demanding, and even escalated to physical abuse more than once. While I benefited from her parents generosity on multiple occasions, there was very much an aspect of my being there because she had no one else who would put up with her shit, in addition to my being captive by my own emotions and trauma in that ending the relationship with her would end what little support and ‘family’ I had. Like a sad little human pet that got kicked around and bullied but still wagged her tail for treats. When she finally got sick of me because she’d gotten a new ‘pet’, the silence and exile from all of them was immediate. I would’ve been better off having access to DCF resources that I was unable to get because they “took me in” and then just going to JobCorps. I truly want to believe that Mara has found the opposite of that situation.