ZEBRINA/OCTAVIA POV

I sink deeper into the couch, eyes glued to the TV as the local news flashes across the screen. Images of crime, theft, and corruption fill the frame, but I barely register the details. My mind keeps drifting back to everything that’s happened, everything I’ve lost and all that I wish to recall. Was my life such a mess that the least opportunity I had I threw it away like it meant nothing?

“You’ve been quiet,” my father says from the armchair across the room, his voice calm but probing. He watches me with those piercing eyes that always seem to see right through me.

“I'm fine pa,...