All my life I, Leiah Rose Sánchez watched my mother Rosa get beat by my father Afa. My mother was a beautiful strong Mexican woman and even as she got beat by my father she never cried. My father is a Samoan, a leader of Samoan gang called BTT or Basetown Tribe. He is ruthless and heartless man. My mother met my father when she was eighteen and she was instantly in love and soon after they got married. I was born when they were twenty five and as soon as my eyes were open my father denied me because my eyes were grey and not black like him or my mom's. An even though I had eyes just like his mom he hated me and made my mom put her maiden name Sánchez as my last name, he wasn't even on my birth certificate. An even after denying me he stayed with my mom but treated her different. His once kisses and hugs turned to slaps and punches. No matter how bad he treated her she stayed because she loved him and thought he would see that I looked just like them and go back to the ways he was before but he never did. Far twenty five years she stayed and I stayed too because I was the one who would pick her off the floor and clean her up after a beating. I begged and begged for years for her to run away with me and she said no he will change. I often jumped in front of the hits and slaps but that seemed to piss him off more and he would beat us both. After the first couple of times I jumped in the way my mom made me promise to not get involved again because she said I was the reason she was able to remain strong and if I was hurt she wouldn't be able to remain strong. On nights he would come home mad my mom was make me leave and on one of those nights I met Gilberto Lopez or as everyone calls him Gilly. Many people were scared of him because he was a big guy covered in tattoos and in a MC but to me he was a teddy bear. I have known Gilly for two years now and he met my mother but he doesn't know that I'm Samoan, from San Bernardino or that my dad was in a Samoan gang. Until tonight.
