Returning to School wasn’t a triumph. It felt like a sentence.
Elena felt it the moment she stepped onto campus the way conversations died mid-sentence, the way eyes slid away too quickly or lingered too long. The air itself seemed to recoil from her. The “medical leave” excuse had fooled no one. The truth had leaked through group chats, anonymous pages, whispered warnings passed like contraband.
That’s her.
The scholarship girl.
Vance’s little project.
She kept her head down and walked.
The law building loomed ahead, familiar and suddenly hostile. As she pushed through the heavy doors, the silence followed her like a second skin. Seats shifted subtly as she passed. A girl she’d once shared notes with moved her bag just enough to block the empty chair beside her. Another pretended to
