Michelle Knight, the woman held captive in Ariel Castro’s Cleveland house of horrors for over a decade, wants to be known as “Lily”, her favorite flower.
Michelle Knight’s memoir, Finding Me, is set to be published on May 6, the anniversary of her rescue.
It’s “my favorite flower,” she told People magazine, and it symbolizes renewal.
Michelle Knight, who was 21 when she was kidnapped in 2002, was the first of Ariel Castro’s victims and the one who suffered the most at the hands of the sadist.
“Everything in the house was unexplainable,” said Michelle Knight, who is now 33.
“It happened. I don’t know the reasons why.”
Michelle Knight said she has seen little of Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, the other two victims, since they were rescued on May 6.
She insists there is no bad blood and that after years of being yoked together by a madman they need to heal on their own.
“I love them and they love me,” she said.
“Hopefully we’ll all get back together again.”
Michelle Knight is living in her own apartment in Cleveland, taking cooking classes and relishing her freedom.
“I don’t take things for granted anymore,” she told People magazine.
“Not even the little things like looking out a window. I went through years of torture, and now I’m back. I’m free to fly.”
Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus are also working on books.
Excerpts of Michelle Knight’s tome will be featured in next week’s issue of People magazine.
They are likely to include Michelle Knight’s horrific accounts of being chained to a pole in the basement, repeated rapes and how Ariel Castro impregnated her five times and beat her so she would miscarry each time.
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