RAVEN
I had no idea how long I sat on the edge of the bed, Phoebe's ugly words echoing in my head until they felt as if they had soaked into the walls.
But a text came through on my phone, finally ripping me out of the haze, and I grabbed it. My heart skipped a beat when I saw a banking notification pop up on the screen, and my eyes widened as I quickly scrolled to it. The first stipend had landed.
I hadn’t expected it this month. I thought maybe next month, after all the paperwork had settled. I had exactly five hundred dollars in the account—money I’d scraped together and guarded for months. Now a string of extra zeros sat beside that number like they belonged to someone else.
Ten thousand dollars. I stared until the digits blurred.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to jump up and show s
