When they finally let her go, Selena fell to her knees, gasping for air as if she had just surfaced from deep water.
She crawled toward the bathroom with her phone in her hand, slamming and locking the door behind her before anyone could stop her.
What she saw in the mirror made her stomach churn violently: uneven, jagged strands of hair, badly cut patches, her temple almost shaved, red eyes, and the face of a woman who had just been deeply humiliated in her own home.
She trembled for several minutes, weeping silently as the reality of the violence washed over her, but then, something inside her stopped breaking and began to harden into something unbreakable.
She pulled out her phone, ordered a ride-share service, and packed her thesis, her research journals, and a simple change of clothes into a small backpack.
She walked out of that apartment without saying a single goodbye, ignoring Barbara’s muffled yelling from the living room and Hunter’s desperate, angry orders for her to return.
She checked into a cheap motel near the edge of town, slept for barely three hours, and before the dawn light hit the window, she borrowed a pair of scissors from the front desk to fix the horrific mess in front of the mirror.
She put on a navy blue blazer, tucked her burning anger away in a corner of her heart where fear used to reside, and headed toward the campus with her head held high.
She didn’t yet know that walking into that room was going to destroy more than just a marriage, but she knew that turning back was no longer an option.
PART 2
The morning at the university campus was crisp and clear, as if the city had not quite woken up yet from its long, dreamless sleep.
Selena crossed the main esplanade with her heavy backpack over her shoulder, her thesis clutched tightly to her chest, and a silk scarf that wasn’t hers covering most of the mess in her hair.
A young student had practically run up to her at the entrance to the restroom in the humanities building, looking at her with a look of pure concern.
“Doctor, well, you are not quite there yet, but you are almost,” the young woman said with a tenderness that nearly brought Selena to tears.
“You helped me not to drop out of my master’s program last year, so please, let me help you today,” the girl added while handing over the scarf.
