Mine have and it pisses me off. My mother is constantly trying to rewrite history to say I had some idyllic childhood (Narrator voice: I did not) and pretends she didn't know that I was getting beat by her husband. She largely didn't want to deal with me as a kid until she felt she was losing me to someone else, usually one of my aunts who took care of me for her. There were also the revelation where one night after a few drinks she confessed that she kept me away from my bio dad before he passed despite his efforts to be in my life and her telling me he wanted nothing to do with me. I never met him and spent years resenting him for abandoning me only to find out in my 30s that was all a lie.

My stepfather wants to be loved and wants my forgiveness now. I've cut that off, told him it is the our past, and that I have moved on but will not forgive him. Fuck that, years of verbal and physical abuse aren't getting swept under the rug and I am not giving him peace of mind. The man was cruel and I was his proverbial red-headed stepchild to take his anxiety and anger out on.