Eloise continued, her voice low and strained, “I was humiliated, made to crawl on the ground and bark like a dog, scorned with every dirty word they could think of. But that’s nothing compared to what happened to me in prison. They stripped me naked and threw me into a cage, hosed me down with high-pressure water. And so what? What does any of it matter now? Racheal, I endured pain that I can’t even begin to explain. And Rain… He died trying to protect me. I owe him everything. Her death, her sacrifice, it haunts me. I owe him that much. That’s why I have to keep going, no matter how much it hurts. I have to live, to fulfill the dream he had for me. It’s the least I can do for him.”
Racheal listened quietly, her heart heavy with the weight of Eloise’s words. She had known that Eloise had
