Chapter 1 — Fractures That Whisper
Everyone told her she was strong.
Aaliyah had learned to nod when they said it, to smile in the right places, to carry herself like a woman who had already healed. But strength, she was discovering, was not the same as peace.
The panic came quietly. A tightness in her chest after conversations that should have meant nothing. A trembling in her hands when old memories returned without warning. A weariness that no amount of sleep could cure.
It was only when her therapist asked, "When did you first learn that your feelings were dangerous?" that something inside her cracked open.
For the first time, Aaliyah wondered whether survival had cost her more than she had ever admitted.