I Raised myself quietly

Mama worked the daylight into dark  
Chasing bills, chasing broken parts  
We learned love through borrowed hands  
Strangers raising someone else’s plans  

Oldest sister tried her best  
I learned silence from the rest  
Little ones with tired eyes  
Growing up before our time  

They said we were “safe” where we stayed  
But some hands leave a different kind of pain  
Me and her, we learned too soon  
Even daylight can feel like a room  

We were just kids in borrowed rooms  
Holding onto what we couldn’t choose  

I raised myself quietly  
In the spaces no one could see  
Where the truth lived in my chest  
But never made it past my teeth  

I was breaking silently  
While the world just let it be  
But I’m still here, I didn’t drown  
I built a life from falling down  

They took us once, said “this ain’t right”  
But wrong still found its way back inside  
That’s when I met a man called “dad”  
But he was something darker than that  

Hands that should’ve kept me safe  
Left shadows I still can’t erase  
Told the truth, but no one stayed  
Mama said it’d go away  

But truth don’t fade when it’s carved that deep  
It just learns how to hide and breathe  

I raised myself quietly  
In the fear they couldn’t see  
Holding pieces of my soul  
Like it was my responsibility  

I was screaming silently  
While they chose what to believe  
But I’m still here, I didn’t break  
Even when my world would shake  

Then one night it all went wrong  
Liquor loud, his hands too strong  
He reached for her—I lost my fear  
I became the voice no one would hear  

I called the cops, I drew the line  
Chose her life and lost mine  
Door slammed shut, I walked away  
With nothing but what I couldn’t say  

And they called it “just a mistake”  
But I knew what evil takes  

I raised myself out of the fire  
Out of truth they called a liar  
Built a home with steady hands  
Out of all that I couldn’t stand  

I was hurting endlessly  
But it didn’t bury me  
I turned pain into a door  
And I am not that girl anymore  

Met a love that felt like light  
Found a place that finally felt right  
From the wreckage, from the pain  
I grew something that could remain  

I didn’t get the childhood I deserved  
But I rewrote the ending in every word  

Now my children sleep without fear  
No shadows reaching for them here  
No borrowed hands, no silent cries  
Just love that stays, not love that hides  

I became the safety I was missing  
A gentle home, a life worth living  
And every piece they tried to break in me  
Built the mother I choose to be  

Piano chords + tempo like Alex Warren