Reasons for Going to the Ball (A Response to Her Stepmother from Cinderella)
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Aleah Heims
To my Father’s Second Wife, To use the word mother in your name feels wrong to me, and I do not even like the thought that you married the man who raised me when my mother was gone. I received your letter many years ago. I have written back many times, and the letters simply landed in the garbage. There have been so many things that I hoped to say to you, and ten years later, I’m still not sure that I know what I would like to say. I have children now. Two of them. A son and a daughter. I love them with all of my heart. Maybe someday I could understand why what you did to me was in the best interest of your daughters. When you spit on me and kicked dirt onto me, I thought it was purely due to how revolting your daughters were. I thought that your inner ugliness is more horrid than their outer ugliness would ever be. You said in your letter that your father was a man trying to pay off his debts. I truly am sorry that you were sold when you were thirteen. That is not something that I would wish on my worst enemy. That is not something that anyone should endure. Yet, you abused me. I have listened to your side of the story, and I have read your letter many times. I know some of it without even looking at it. Yet, I still cannot decide if I trust the woman, you say you are. You claim to know the torture that I endured but had you actually known, you would have loved as if I was yours. You made me question my worth. I knew