Ezra
The world had become a mirror Ezra no longer recognized.
Everywhere he turned, there were faces—watching, whispering, pretending not to stare while doing exactly that. On the street below his apartment, a group of people paused longer than necessary. In the café across the road, a woman leaned toward her friend, her eyes flicking up to the window as if she knew he was there. Online, it was worse. Headlines twisted truth into spectacle. Comments turned his life into entertainment.
Liar.
Fraud.
Built on deception.
Ezra sat on the edge of his bed, fully dressed though he hadn’t slept, his phone lying face down beside him like a loaded weapon. He hadn’t gone to work. Couldn’t. The idea of walking into that building—of standing before the same people who had once respected him—made h
