So please, let me help you today.” She handed over the scarf.

Selena wanted to refuse, but she knew she couldn’t afford to be stubborn, so she tied the soft, wine-colored scarf around her head and kept walking toward the department.

At 8:19, she received the first message from Hunter, its digital chime sounding like a gunshot in the quiet hall. Don’t do this. Just come home and we can fix everything.

Then another, even more manipulative than the first. Mom didn’t want to go that far, but you pushed us into it, and you know it.

And the last one, worse than all the rest combined. If you go into that room looking like that, they’re going to tear you apart, and nobody is going to respect a woman who looks so unstable.

Selena turned her phone off completely. They had already tried to take her dignity; she wasn’t going to let them take her concentration too.