I never imagined that my first love would come back into my life as my son’s favorite soccer coach. I hadn’t seen him in sixteen years. Not since the day he vanished without a word. And yet, there he was again, standing right in front of me, holding an old envelope with my name written on it. One evening, he looked at me with shaking hands and said quietly,“There’s something you need to know.” What I found inside that envelope changed everything I thought I knew about my past—and about

I was always the “fat girlfriend.” The one guys settled for.The one they dated until someone better—someone thinner—came along. Until my boyfriend dumped me for my best friend. And then, six months later, on the very day they were supposed to get married, his mother called me and said, “You do NOT want to miss this.” That’s when I finally learned just how wrong he had been about me. My name is Larkin, I’m 28, and I’ve been the big girl my whole life. Not the cute, curvy, Instagram-thick kind

If you looked at my life on paper, it would read like a long, heartbreaking list of losses. I wake up every day at 4:30 a.m. in a house that feels too empty, too silent, too big for just me. The walls echo with memories that sting. The third bedroom down the hall still smells faintly of strawberry shampoo and childhood innocence. If you looked at my life on paper, it would read like a long, heartbreaking list of losses. I can’t open the bedroom door without feeling like someone