The crowd had already formed outside her building by the time Valentina stepped out of the lobby of the mall. Cameras flashed without pause. Microphones shoved forward like weapons. Voices rose in overlapping bursts, all of them desperate to drag a single word from her mouth.

“VALENTINA, is it true you’re pressing charges?”

“Why haven’t you responded to Alecia’s video?”

“Did you steal Marco or did she?”

None of it mattered.

She didn’t flinch or look at them, and just ...