Heena smiled, a sad, knowing expression. "Because if you were like the other women who suffer from domestic violence—the ones who break, who still put their abusive husbands on a pedestal, and who actively push other young girls into that exact same fire just to validate their own suffering—I would have thrown you off a cliff right alongside your bastard of a husband. But you are not like them."
Heena turned her head, looking out at the golden koi swimming beneath the lotus leaves. Her eyes grew incredibly distant, clouded with the heavy, unshakeable memories of a world completely alien to the Great Dynasty.
