I still hadn't gotten my phone back. Elara told me she would personally handle any updates regarding Alex, effectively cutting off my only tether to the outside world. I was finally allowed out of that suffocating bedroom, but only with a bodyguard following my every step. The confinement hadn't ended; my gilded cage had just gotten a little bigger.
Still, I suppose I should have been thankful just to breathe real air. I walked along the cleared park path and sat heavily on a frozen bench. Piles of graying, unmelted snow were scattered across the grass. Someone had built a lopsided snowman nearby, and a row of tiny snow ducks lined the back of another bench.
It was a peaceful, idyllic scene—the kind that should bring a contented smile to anyone's face. But my mind was a chaotic, churning mess. A literal blizzard would have been milder than the storm of anxiety tearing through me.
