Jenni - Thank you... my thoughts exactly.........but two replies ago I was trying to justify the Mom's actions... but that's the beauty of child abuse...you protect your offenders and still love them even though they have hurt you, used you, abused you,... but they're the only parents you have....the only love you've ever known...then you realize..you weren't a daughter.....you were an easy target - a peice of a-- ....that's it..... what do you do with that? ....You get angry and feel exactly what you wrote.... you do! But then you go back to ....that's the only Mom&dad I have....who am I if they didn't love me....And I'm sure they told her growing up how "special" she was...and how beautiful she was, I'm sure the step-dad told her how much he "needed" her...and I'm sure she believed it..... it is a messed up thing and that girl needs to hear from people like you over and over again ..telling her that it was wrong and sick and he is a monster.......but that doesn't make it any easier to realize that........that you' were never speciel, never beautiful, never needed..... sometimes I rather beleive that my step-dad really loved me but was just depressed and didn't feel like he had control of anything since he lost his job & couldn't support the family, felt less of a man, and the only thing he could control was me, at 7yrs old..that's my excuse for him....sometimes thats easier than believing that you were never loved by anyone your whole life......and your mom...she turned her head because she wasn't strong enough to live without a man..... Today...I am strong...a "thriver" like below......just feeling really really really sad for everything every abused little girl went though....and wondering why I still love my Mom-because, I do-she didn't know, but when she found out...she didn't leave him...stayed with him till the day the bas-urd died- but -she's the only mom I have.....