MittenKnitten
You Put Me In Pieces is a raw, unfiltered account of survival inside a system that repeatedly failed to protect the people who needed it most.
Told through the lived experiences of two mothers, Ashley and Cecilea, this book documents the slow unraveling of safety as domestic abuse, coercive control, stalking, and institutional neglect collide. What begins as a fragile attempt at separation spirals into a relentless fight for protection-against violent partners, against manipulation masked as authority, and against a legal system more invested in procedure than truth.
As the women flee from house to house, county to county, the danger follows. Police reports are dismissed. Evidence is ignored. Children are placed in harm's way while abusers remain free to intimidate, pursue, and retaliate. Each chapter exposes not only the private terror of abuse, but the public betrayal that occurs when victims are doubted, silenced, or criminalized for asking for help.
Interwoven with moments of dark humor, fierce loyalty, and maternal resilience, You Put Me In Pieces refuses to present trauma as tidy or resolved. There is no clean ending-because real life does not offer one. Instead, this book stands as testimony: of survival in real time, of love forged under pressure, and of the cost of being disbelieved.
This is not a story about closure.
It is a story about endurance.
And about what happens when women refuse to disappear.
Book title and cover credit goes to my 11 year old daughter.