For weeks, Lena had stayed hidden in her room. The walls felt safer than the world outside, even if they suffocated her. She had not stepped into her office, nor visited her usual haunts. Every sound, every shadow reminded her of whispers she imagined people would say behind her back.

But that morning, something shifted. Perhaps it was the silence of the empty house or the hollow ache of loneliness, either way, Lena finally dressed and left her room.

Her reflection in the hallway mirror startled her. The once-glossy waves of her hair were gone, cut bluntly into a bob. It was shorter on one side than the other, uneven...