Abandoned: The true story of a little girl who didn’t belong

Abandoned: The true story of a little girl who didn’t belong
Anya Peters

Separated from her real mother at birth, Anya grew up in terror of her drunken bullying uncle. Beaten, humiliated and sexually abused by him from the age of six, she thought her life couldn't get worse. But one day it did."I was used to Daddy screaming 'whore's child' at me, over and over again. But I couldn't get used to what he made me do."Anya was too terrified to tell anybody about what her uncle did to her. But then he got careless and started abusing her in front of the other children. When her brothers started calling her a 'whore', Anya cracked and all her terrible secrets came pouring out.Anya had always coped because there was one woman who loved her deeply, her 'Mummy'. But this time love was not enough. One morning 'Mummy' just left.Determined to make a new life, Anya buried her feelings and tried to move on. But when she ended up homeless, living in her car, she knew she had to face her past if she was ever going to find happiness and security again.Top 10 Sunday Times Bestseller, Abandoned is Anya's inspirational story of her fight to find love, acceptance and a place to belong.

Abandoned

The true story of a little girl who didn’t belong

ANYA PETERS

Copyright (#ulink_336ae78e-200c-5b5e-b1b3-92221f931a95)

This is a work of non-fiction. In order to protect privacy, some names and places have been changed.

HarperElement

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/)

HarperElement is a trademark of HarperCollinsPublishers Limited

Published by HarperElement 2007

© Anya Peters 2007

Anya Peters asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007245727

Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2009 ISBN 9780007348305

Version: 2017-06-08

Dedication (#ud1b86ba1-df2f-53fe-bcca-1346bbb136f8)

To Mummy,

whose love was always there

as the dock leaf to soothe the sting of him …

And to Brendan, for never letting go.

Epigraph (#ud1b86ba1-df2f-53fe-bcca-1346bbb136f8)

‘Although the world is full of suffering,

it is full also of the overcoming of it.’

(Helen Keller, 1880–1968)

Contents

Cover (#ubaa095d0-f84d-5f10-aefd-d9da9f4d8687)

Title Page (#ue4d417b5-9891-563c-80d5-c0f9fd1ee5d4)

Copyright (#u05dce46a-ea04-5408-a41c-af4560940024)

Dedication (#u77a2fd4e-25db-514a-a3cd-0612d832e419)

Epigraph (#u286dc284-4dd8-525b-93c7-35df15337106)

Chapter 1 (#u3b990ba0-f442-55d5-b5da-f06629fbfd91)

Chapter 2 (#u11d04ad0-dee3-5029-8954-833dd643ae0a)

Chapter 3 (#ube133115-d6f8-5824-8b5e-cb2026cba6f3)

Chapter 4 (#u89d7806b-f11d-5671-b3d3-0a6314937123)

Chapter 5 (#u3f9e8b09-f8a0-5ea2-b9cf-5dbba70e6bcf)

Chapter 6 (#uae2bf4d8-6f50-526b-ad51-5459088953ba)

Chapter 7 (#u0e97873a-79b1-51b4-9374-070ddf8571e3)

Chapter 8 (#u356faffb-11e0-5871-8c6a-891a8ba4b679)

Chapter 9 (#u68ac06f7-bf52-5b60-bda2-3dc0364ecc7c)

Chapter 10 (#u7832946b-9e62-5152-ad35-49ac81477395)

Chapter 11 (#u2cf507d2-9b5e-5af0-9ddd-2e425428c56b)

Chapter 12 (#u3a9ecf91-4996-5503-9f0f-0c3044757a4e)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)