My uncle once asked me, ‘Are you a virgin?’ when I was already 27 years old. From that moment, I started to be afraid of him. And a few days later, when he took me to a hotel outside the city, he leaned close to my ear by the pool and whispered, ‘After the pool, come up to my room…’”

And now, for the first time, he was willing to let me protect myself.

The truth about my father would take longer to uncover. There would be more difficult conversations, more painful discoveries, and perhaps answers that none of us was ready to hear.

But I was no longer afraid to ask the questions.

And I was no longer willing to let silence decide what I deserved to know.