“Get out of the car right now,” my mother ordered while rain hammered the highway and my three-day-old twins cried in their car seats, and when I begged her to stop because the babies were newborns, my father grabbed my hair and pushed me out onto the road while the car was still moving…

The car slowed ahead of me and my mother leaned out of the passenger window holding Audrey’s carrier.

“No please do not do this,” I screamed while running toward them through the rain.

Her face twisted with disgust as she shouted, “Divorced women do not deserve children.”

Then she threw the carrier into the muddy ditch beside the road where Audrey’s cries grew louder. A second later Caleb’s carrier followed through the air and landed beside his sister.

I ran to them despite the agony tearing through my body and grabbed both carriers while checking desperately to make sure they were safe. Both babies were screaming but thankfully protected by their seats.

The car stopped again and Danielle stepped out briefly while I knelt in the mud holding my crying children. For a single hopeful moment I believed she might help us.

Instead she walked up to me, looked directly into my eyes, and spat in my face before saying quietly, “You are a disgrace to this family.”

Then she returned to the car and drove away into the storm.