Morning sunlight crept in through the blinds of Lynda’s rented apartment, casting narrow stripes across the floor. The faint scent of the herbal tea she had just brewed lingered in the air, but the calm was fragile. Today, she would take another step forward, a deposition, a formal statement before her legal team would lay out their case in court. She dressed in a navy pantsuit, crisp and intentional, leaving behind those soft, familiar layers that had been her comfort blanket these past ...