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as if my life were an unfinished draft rather than a structure deliberately built out of silence, patience, and strategy, and the people around us laughed not because the joke was clever but because laughter is the fastest way to avoid becoming the next target.
I raised my glass, nodded once, and said nothing, because my body remembered lessons my mind had not yet forgiven: do not disrupt the room, do not force people to confront their comfort, do not expose the truth until it can no longer be ignored. I stepped outside onto the terrace, where the air was heavy with heat and distant traffic, and it was there—alone, framed by glass doors and reflected city lights—that my phone vibrated with a notification that felt heavier than any insult Bryce had ever thrown my way.
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