Rica Ramos is a senior staff writer for a lifestyle magazine in Florida. Her first-person essays are published in Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, Motherwell, Literary Mama, The Sunlight Press, Elephant Journal, and Ellipsis Zine, and all around the internet. When she’s not writing, Rica spends her time consuming large quantities of jalapeños, doing yoga and running, reading books, buying books, binge-watching HGTV, and spoiling her dog. She is the author of Petals of Rain: A Mother’s Memoir.

Should Rica invite her mother to her wedding?

In her early early forties and about to remarry, Rica Ramos realizes that starting over could mean leaving her mother behind. She longs to heal the relationship, but her mother still refuses to acknowledge the sexual abuse Rica suffered at the hands of her stepfather, or her own culpability throughout the years. With old traumas resurfacing and a new life unfolding before her, Rica grasps the power of unspoken grief—and the potential to suffer or heal. Will she and her mother ever cross the chasm between them, or are some secrets meant to stay buried?

As Rica navigates her options, she faces two ultimate choices: submit to a culture that shames daughters for not honoring their mothers, or muster the courage to go her own way. Offering a bold and lucid look at mother-daughter relationships, Nobody’s Daughter underscores every woman’s right to truth and validation.