Chapter 5:
For a few days, the small money from the shop helped. She bought food, paid what she could, and allowed herself to breathe again. But relief never lasted long. As the money ran low, the familiar fear returned, quiet but persistent.
After a few days of careful spending, reality settled in. The job was not enough to sustain her. The thought of returning to nothing — to the same empty waiting — filled her with dread. She had moved forward, but only slightly, and the ground beneath her still felt unstable.
Doubt crept back into her thoughts. Maybe this was all she could manage. Maybe trying harder would only lead to more disappointment. She hated how easily fear found its way back, undoing the strength she had worked so hard to build.
Yet even as doubt whispered its familiar lies, something had changed. She no longer wanted to stop trying. The fear was there, but so was a quiet determination. And for the first time, she wondered if pushing through the doubt might lead her somewhere she had never allowed herself to imagine.