The city felt louder than usual. When Lilly stepped out of the Bergen Global tower, the noise hit her like a physical shove. Horns blared without rhythm, brakes screeched, voices overlapped in fragments she couldn't make sense of. Someone laughed too loudly into a phone nearby. A motorcycle sped past, its engine cutting through everything else.
It was too much for her.
She used to walk out of this building with purpose. With direction. With a schedule in her head and tasks waiting for her tomorrow.
Now she walked out with nothing.
Her arms wrapped tightly around her bag, fingers clutching the strap as if it were the only thing anchoring her to reality. Like if she loosened her grip, something else would be taken from her, too.
Her throat burned.
Not here, she told herself. Not here.
Not where anyone from the office might see. Not where the glass walls behind her still held people who had just watched her fall apart.
