Control

Mira's breath hitched slightly. Her fists clenched on the armrests of the chair.

"But somehow… Eric found her. And just like that, everything went to hell. He told her he could help. Said he had connections, that he could get her into a big agency… and stupidly, Cindy believed him. She was just a kid who wanted to be seen."

Karl's expression didn't change, but his jaw tightened subtly.

"A few weeks later… she changed. Quiet. Scared of everything. I asked her what was wrong, and all she'd say was, 'I'm fine, Mira.' But her eyes… her eyes were already dead."

Mira inhaled sharply, as if trying to hold in the wave of emotion crashing through her.

"And then one morning, my aunt called me… Cindy had hanged herself in her room. The laptop was still on. The last file she opened was a draft of her debut stream."

She finally looked up at Karl again, her eyes red but steady, filled with raw, honest pain.