I reached for my phone with a heavy hand, half expecting bad news, some new demand from Victoria typed out and sent before she’d even had time to sleep on her own anger. But it was Maya.
Don’t you dare let anything she said get to you. I mean it. That woman doesn’t get to live in your head rent free. If anything, let this be the thing that makes you MORE serious about what you actually want. You deserve better than being talked to like that. Get some rest. I love you.
I read it twice, then a third time, my thumb hovering over the screen like the words might rearrange themselves into something less true the longer I looked at them.
Something in my chest shifted, small but real, a tightening that wasn’t quite the same ache as befor
