The water was not hot enough. Leila dipped her finger into the tub filled with water, it wasn’t as hot as she wanted it to be. Her skin was red from too much scrubbing but she needed to bathe again. She wanted to wash away Charles’s touch from her body; his smell, his presence, his entire existence.

Leila got into the tub, and pushed her head under. Bubbles floated to the top of the water, her eyes blurred and her lungs burned from a lack of oxygen. She pinched her nose, counting ...