I sat curled on the couch in our crammed room, surrounded by manuscripts, dishes waiting to be thrown out, and my laptop blinking open on another tab of social media reactions. My eyes stung with exhaustion and regret, after days of scrolling, I knew every angle: the praise, the condemnation, the fear, the fascination.

Every mention of my book became a mirror turned backward, reflecting Kyl in ways he couldn’t hide from now, the memior I wrote hoping to just have my voice heard had gone ...