When Lily got out of her pod, she screamed into her pillow so hard her entire body trembled.
Her throat burned, her face flushed red, and for a few seconds, she could barely breathe from the frustration boiling inside her.
She had never been this angry. Ever.
Her emotions clawed at her chest, confusion and humiliation mixing into something wild and hot. It wasn't just annoyance—it was fury that she didn't even know how to process. All she could do was cry, scream, and bury her face deeper into the soft pillow that muffled her rage.
The last time she remembered feeling this way was when her parents refused to buy her a teacup kitten and a pug when she was nine. She had thrown a fit for days, refused to eat, and even got sick. In the end, they gave in. Of course they did. They always did.
That was years ago. A memory she had thought buried—until now.
And this time, the reason wasn't a pet or a toy. It was a person.
A person named Ren.
