The Ones Who Shape Us

(Julia’s POV)

It began, as most defining moments in my life do, with a face from the past.

Five years ago, New York City felt like a dying structure around me. Every day, another frame came crashing down.

My work was falling apart, a string of poor yields in my secular ventures had drained my accounts until there wasn’t a single penny left. The man I’d loved, or at least believed had loved me dearly, walked out without a backward glance, leaving behind nothing but cold air and the bitter taste of time thrown to the dogs.

And Jane, my older twin sister, was never a fallback companion. Not because she wouldn’t listen, but because I’d never been the kind of woman to hand my pain to her. I always felt she would mock me, especially since her life seemed so much more perfect than mine.

Not long ago, she had left her previous job and secured another under a well-known, influential man named Powel.

So I kept my wounds hidden behind wide smiles, pretty hair, and the kind of posture people adopt