Standing in the Ashes

VALERIE

I watched Vivienne clutch her cheek, her hand pressed against the red mark that was already blooming across her skin like a rose unfurling in fast forward, and I felt a strange cocktail of satisfaction swirl in my chest.

Her eyes were glassy, her lips trembling, her entire body shaking with the force of the humiliation that had just been dumped on her head like a bucket of ice water,