Summary

Chapter 1 of Somebody’s Daughter introduces the author-narrator, Ashley Ford, who lives with her boyfriend in New York and receives a call from her mother, who lives in Indiana. Her mother breaks the news that Ford’s father, who has been in prison for decades, is finally being released. Ford, unsure how to feel, cries in her boyfriend’s arms. In Chapter 2, Ford reminisces on her early childhood living in a studio apartment with her mother and baby brother, R.C. At school, Ford was quick to learn to read and speak and was curious to learn about the sunrise. At home, however, she got into trouble with her mother often. She threw out her mother’s cigarettes one time and lived in fear the entire day until her mother found them and beat her as punishment. In Chapter 3, Ford remembers hiding in...