Chapter 1: Prologue: The LetterThe sun bled orange through the window, catching dust motes in its final rays. Jennifer placed the letter on the cool cement ledge, its creases a fragile map of the years it had spent in hiding. She traced the loops of her father’s script, the ink faded to the color of a day-old bruise. The words were not just ink; they were bone and muscle, a spine for her own wavering resolve.The clatter of a steel tumbler on the kitchen floor broke the quiet. Her mother, Asha, stood in the doorway, wiping her hands on a