Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard

Liz starts having recurring nightmares in which she turns her back on her mother and abandons her in her hour of need. In the daytime, she understands that this is her guilt manifesting—guilt that she didn’t go back and see her mother again after she visited with Lisa at the hospital. She and Sam stay with Carlos and celebrate the New Year, but the next day, Carlos vanishes again. The motel manager tells Liz and Sam that they’ll have to leave unless they can pay for another night by checkout time.

Out of money, they leave the motel. Liz and Sam end up parting ways when Sam goes to stay with Oscar. Carlos finds Liz at her friend Jamie’s house, and she accompanies him to another motel. This particular motel is nothing like the others they have stayed in—it’s more run down and is often used by prostitutes and their clientele. Carlos continues to vanish for days at a time, leaving Liz alone. She’s afraid to leave though, because she doesn’t know how she’d survive on the street by herself. She doesn’t even know where she is.

When a woman is stabbed and killed by her boyfriend in the motel, Liz decides that she’s had enough.