Messages everywhere.
Neighbors.
Coworkers.
Unknown numbers.
Then I saw Daniel’s name.
27 missed calls.
I stared at it.
Then locked the phone immediately.
I couldn’t deal with him.
Not yet.
Because suddenly I felt angry.
Very angry.
Not just at his wife.
At him too.
Because somewhere inside me, I knew something painful:
If Daniel had set boundaries from the beginning...
Maybe none of this would have happened.
Maybe.
Hours later, my mother arrived.
The moment she entered and saw the bandages, she froze.
Then she started crying.
Real crying.
Not ordinary crying.
The kind mothers cry when they see their child hurting.
“What happened to you?”
I couldn’t even answer.
Because suddenly I started crying too.
Everything I had been holding inside broke completely.
The gossip.
The insults.
The revenge.
The pride.
Everything.
And for the first time since this entire madness started...
I finally admitted the truth.
“I made mistakes too.”
My mother looked confused.
But I already knew.
Because while lying there, I could no longer pretend I was completely innocent.
No, I did not deserve what happened.
Never.
But had I played with fire?
Yes.
And now I had burns to prove it.
Part 3
Three days later police came.
Apparently almost everybody in the compound had become witnesses.
People who never greeted me suddenly had opinions.
People who never cared before suddenly became analysts.
One said:
“She was always too friendly.”
Another said:
