Ximena's POV
I stood before my bedroom mirror with my arms folded tight across my chest, studying the girl who stared back at me. Maybe if I glared hard enough at my reflection, she would vanish and someone completely different would appear in her place.
My hair still held the soft curls from yesterday's styling session with Glenda's cousin, but even with the gentle waves framing my face, I couldn't understand what Glenda claimed to see. She kept insisting I looked incredible and completely transformed.
All I saw was myself.
The same round cheeks, the same body I despised, the same figure that felt like a burden I carried everywhere. The same girl Kane had branded a worthless nobody because of her weight.
My throat constricted at the memory. His cruel words had embedded themselves in me like barbed wire, and despite my attempts to dismiss them, they kept shredding me from the inside.
