Svetlana hurried down the hallway, her breath ragged and her chest burning with barely contained fury. The conversation with Mirella had left her seething with a sense of injustice she couldn’t shake. How could someone be so cruel? So indifferent to her suffering? Every word had been a lash against her dignity, as if her own will held no value in the world she had been dragged into against her own.

The echo of her footsteps rang against the cold marble floor, amplifying the urgency with which s