Breaking Free: A Journey of Resilience is the true story of a girl the system failed, and the woman she refused to become.

Born into poverty and chaos, CL Ball grew up in a house without heat, running water, or enough food. What the outside world never saw was worse: sexual abuse by her biological father, brutal physical and emotional abuse from her mother, and a childhood where hospitals and church dinners were the only safe places to breathe. When the truth finally surfaced, the system sent her to foster care—then left her to navigate trauma, betrayal, and survival largely on her own.

This memoir traces her journey from those shadowed rooms and a bed that caught fire around her, through foster homes, teen pregnancy, and the grief of losing the only adults who truly tried to protect her. Along the way, she discovers fierce love for her son, the steady courage of her grandmother, and a stubborn determination not to repeat the patterns that nearly destroyed her.

As an adult, CL Ball fights her way through nursing school, earns a master's degree in nursing education, and pursues a doctorate—even while carrying PTSD, chronic depression, and the invisible scars of childhood abuse. From bedside nursing to the blackboard, she exposes the hidden wounds survivors bring into workplaces and relationships, and the quiet strength it takes just to keep going.

Breaking Free: A Journey of Resilience is for readers who have lived through abuse, neglect, or family dysfunction and wondered if healing was really possible. It is also for the friends, partners, nurses, and therapists who want to understand what survival actually looks like behind closed doors.

If you've ever felt alone with your story, this book will remind you: you are not crazy, you are not broken, and you are not done.