Pāhonoa te oro

I’ll never forget the day of my engagement, not because it was meant to be a celebration, but because it was the day my father humiliated me in front of everyone I cared about. The room was full of friends and family, glasses clinking, laughter echoing, but all I could hear were the words he had just spoken: “No man would want her.” I froze. My heart felt like it had dropped into my stomach, and for a second, I thought the room had gone silent. And in a way, it had. Sixty people stared at me, wa