My mother’s last gift to me before she died was the hair she lost to cancer, but today, Tyler held it like a trophy while the whole school cheered for my destruction. I thought I was alone in my shame until five hundred engines shook the earth, proving that some promises are never truly broken. CHAPTER 1: THE SOUND OF SNAPPING STEEL The morning didn’t feel like a day of execution. It felt like a Tuesday. That was the most jarring part—the way the world continued to spin, the way the sun dared to