Sonia’s POV
I closed the door behind me and leaned my back against it, fists trembling at my sides. My pulse thudded in my ears, my breath short and uneven, like I had just sprinted up a mountain instead of walked out of a breakfast table.
“I won’t let her break me.”
The words slipped out in a whisper, hoarse but resolute. Saying them aloud gave me something solid to cling to, as though my voice alone could hold me together when everything inside me wanted to splinter.
Still, the silence pressed in thickly.
I sank onto the edge of my bed, gripping the duvet until my knuckles blanched. Hayley’s smile, sharp, glittering, poisonous, burned behind my eyes. Every syllable she had laced into her “casual” remarks still echoed inside me.
This family has always opened its doors… You need it m
