(Karen’s POV – Present Tense)

The rain doesn’t let up. It’s the kind of cold that seeps into your bones, that turns every breath into a shiver. I sit beneath a streetlight near the park, soaked through, watching the city blur into streaks of silver and gold.

I left home with nothing but my phone and my purse, yet somehow I feel lighter. Freer. Maybe it’s the silence — no reporters shouting, no phones ringing, no Yasmin whispering poison through the walls of my marriage. Just the ...