STELLA

I’ve been doing everything right.

Smiling when I’m supposed to. Nodding through conversations I don’t hear. Pretending that the ache curled under my ribs is nothing but leftover exhaustion. No one’s noticed. Not my father. Not my teachers. Not even Nikolai, whose flirtations I now let happen like background noise.

But Vivian?

She notices.

Of course she does.

“Are you gonna tell me what’s going on,” she says, “or should I start interrogating your ...