Chapter 189

The thought made her stomach clench with a dread so deep it felt ancient, as if she had always known this pain, had always been running toward it. And still, despite everything, her heart refused to let go of the thread of hope that maybe, just maybe, this time would be different.

When she was forced into prostitution, she had been thankful to God that He had taken Hayder away from her life. He had not been around, and for that she had been grateful in her deepest, darkest moments when hope itself seemed a distant, unattainable thing. The pain, the gut-wrenching agony of his absence, had been there, lingering in every memory she had tried to hold onto, sometimes hidden behind laughter or forced smiles, sometimes in the quiet darkness of sleepless nights when the world outside had been indifferent to her suffering. She would lie awake for hours, staring at the cracked ceiling of whatever room they had locked her in, and she would whisper his name into the darkness like a prayer