Stranger in the Mirror

SIX YEARS LATER…

Valerie’s POV

Mom knocked on my bedroom door just as I was finishing up putting my makeup on. She smiled at me with a motherly fondness, but there was a tightness in her eyes today that was usually absent.

Everyone wanted today to go well.

“He’s here,” she said. “Are you almost ready?”

“Almost,” I said, as I took one last look in the mirror. In the past six years, since an attack