Chapter 36 "The Breaking Point"

• Three days later, Emilia discovered the true scope of her brother's cruelty while visiting her best friend Sophia Chen at the hospital psychiatric ward where she was recovering from a suicide attempt that had nearly succeeded.
• Sophia looked fragile and hollow-eyed in the clinical hospital bed, surrounded by the kind of cheerful decorations that couldn't disguise the fundamental tragedy of an eighteen-year-old who had been driven to believe that death was preferable to continuing her current existence.
• "I'm so glad you came," Sophia whispered, her voice hoarse from the medical interventions that had saved her life. "I wasn't sure you'd want to see me after... after what happened."