Mila closed her laptop. Pressed her palm to her chest. And for the first time in years, she smiled without guilt.

Three months later, a stranger’s comment appeared: “I was going to end things tonight. Then I heard you say, ‘Wide awake, still dreaming.’ Thank you for not sleeping through your own life.”

Then she remembered Joey Kidney’s voice—not the actual author, but the idea of him. The way he talked about broken people piecing themselves back together without pretending the cracks weren’t there. She had read his quotes on a library computer once, back when she still had a library card.

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