Chapter 1

People had always looked at her as if beauty were armor—something that should have protected her from ordinary misery. That was the cruelest part. Standing alone in the stairwell, she felt fragile in a way no one had ever suspected, like glass polished to shine but ready to shatter at the slightest touch.

The breakup replayed itself without mercy. His voice had been calm, almost apologetic, which somehow made it worse. No shouting. No accusations. Just a quiet withdrawal, as if he had already left long before he spoke the words. I’m sorry. I just don’t feel the same. The sentence had lodged itself in her chest, heavy and immovable.

She climbed the last steps slowly, her legs trembling—not from fear yet, but from exhaustion. She hadn’t slept. Every attempt at rest dissolved into memories: his laugh, his hand at the small of her back, the certainty she once carried so easily. The future she had imagined now felt like a cruel joke she’d told herself.