DECIPHERING REALITY

POV: Ivory Wells

I felt more and more like Alice falling down the rabbit hole the farther into the maze of mysteries surrounding Jeremy's beginnings and my own turbulent past I dug. Every new discovery, every turn, just served to completely upend my perception of reality, leaving me clinging to straggles in a world that appeared to change and warp in front of my very eyes.

It was a bewildering, dizzying trip that made me face the hard realities I had been burying for years. As the layers of dishonesty came off, I started to doubt everything I had ever believed and assumed to be true about myself.

And yet, motivated by an unquenchable need for the truth that burned hotter than any flame, I continued even when the ground beneath me appeared to be collapsing. It was an unrelenting search that left no trail untrod and no opportunity untapped. It engulfed me.

"Ivory," Mia would reply, worry tinged in her voice. "You're overdoing it. Just before you really burn out, take a break."

But I'd s