In a modest office tucked behind a community center, two women sat across from me. Their stories, though different, carried a shared thread: girlhood interrupted. Fatima, 26, was married off at age 12. “It wasn’t shocking where I’m from,” she…
At 31, Nadia speaks clearly and without hesitation. “I was trafficked. That’s not something I figured out later—it was obvious from day one.” She was 17 when a distant family friend offered her a job in another city. Her mother,…
The sky was overcast. The wind moved through the trees in lazy waves. The scent of cedar, sawdust, and slow-burning pine logs drifted from the chimney. Jack was in the workshop, shirt off, hands dirty, shaping a cedar bench with…
The town had started treating Vivienne like she’d always been there. She now wore boots with dirt on them. She helped set up the community center’s fundraiser. She kissed Jack in public—and no one dared comment. Her transformation wasn’t just…
It was nearly 8 p.m. when the soft chime of the executive elevator echoed through the otherwise silent office. The rain outside clung to the skyline like a silk sheet, the windows streaked with condensation as lightning flashed over the…
In a modest office tucked behind a community center, two women sat across from me. Their stories, though different, carried a shared thread: girlhood interrupted. Fatima, 26, was married off at age 12. “It wasn’t shocking where I’m from,” she…
At 31, Nadia speaks clearly and without hesitation. “I was trafficked. That’s not something I figured out later—it was obvious from day one.” She was 17 when a distant family friend offered her a job in another city. Her mother,…
The sky was overcast. The wind moved through the trees in lazy waves. The scent of cedar, sawdust, and slow-burning pine logs drifted from the chimney. Jack was in the workshop, shirt off, hands dirty, shaping a cedar bench with…
The town had started treating Vivienne like she’d always been there. She now wore boots with dirt on them. She helped set up the community center’s fundraiser. She kissed Jack in public—and no one dared comment. Her transformation wasn’t just…
It was nearly 8 p.m. when the soft chime of the executive elevator echoed through the otherwise silent office. The rain outside clung to the skyline like a silk sheet, the windows streaked with condensation as lightning flashed over the…