Bought Forgiveness

DAPHNE

NEXT DAY

The book in my hands was one I’d read countless times before. Its pages were familiar, the words etched in my memory, but that didn’t stop me from trying to lose myself in its story again. Reading was my only escape, my only way to keep the noise of my mind at bay. Yet, no matter how hard I tried, the words on the page blurred, replaced by images from yesterday—my father’s rage, th