My name is Chantelle. I live in Atlanta. Through my college years, I was like a lot of young women, unnoticed, and content to live in the background. To celebrate my 25th birthday, I stepped out of the shadows ready to be seen. That was the night I caught Teddy’s eyes. Unaccustomed to all the attention, I got caught up in a whirlwind of what I thought was love. Five years later, when the dust settled, I found myself married, raising three children, and fading into the background again. My mama taught me never to give up on what I wanted, and I wanted my family. So, I fought to be seen and heard by Teddy. Sad to say, it was a losing battle against the strippers on the poles in the ATL, the video hoes in his DVDs, and porn queens on the XXX-rated websites his eyes were practically glued to. After ten years, I should have left him, but before I could get my mind right, he left me. It’s going to take everything I’ve got to step back out of the shadows again.