CHAPTER 184

WALKING THROUGH THE PAST

My brother, two years older than me Scott, was my partner, my best friend for as long as I can remember — Lara continued telling the psychologist —, and I couldn't function without him, and he couldn't function without me. Amidst so many children, so many fights in our house, Scot and I were each other's lifeline. We took showers together, played together, went to the bathroom, slept, everything, we did everything together! After me, there was the youngest one, and she was born with a physical disability. So, apart from being the youngest, she was the sickly one and received a little more care from my parents, especially my mother, as my father was always drunk and claimed she wasn't his daughter most of the time. He would shout at the top of his lungs when he was heavily intoxicated — which was usually the case — that he hadn't functioned as a man for years when my mother got pregnant. And he only didn't beat up my little sister because he pitied her for her