Possessed
The night pressed itself against the windows like a heavy shroud. Inside the apartment, silence wrapped around the three girls as they slept in their different corners. But Mariam wasn’t asleep.
Her eyes stayed wide open, fixed on the ceiling, her heart pounding as though it had been rehearsing this moment all her life. She turned her face slightly toward Tessa’s bed, then toward Ayisha’s mattress on the other side. Both were sound asleep. She sat up carefully, the mattress creaking under her weight. Her breath hitched. She froze, listening. But neither stirred.
Her hand trembled as she reached for the envelope she had hidden beneath her pillow earlier in the evening. The cheque. Her cheque. Her future. She had stared at it for days, thinking, convincing herself she could kee
