The Incompetency of Child Services

From their earliest memories, Regina and her siblings knew all about the child protective services and that various officials might take them into foster care at any moment. They feared this more than they feared Cookie's abuse, which made them experts at dealing with officials. Camille and Cherie taught Regina that she should never seem hungry and should always be clean, because those were two warning signs that teachers and other adults saw as signs of abuse and neglect. The girls wanted to avoid the foster care system because they at least had a limited amount of control over their lives as long as they were all together in Cookie's care. While Cookie was brutal, she was a known factor and the older children would do what they could to protect the younger ones as long as they were together.

When Regina was 13, Cookie...