The Version She Keeps

"She does this thing where she makes you feel like the most interesting person in the room. The trick is you're not. She's just afraid of what happens if you look at her instead."

Dani Reyes has twenty-two days until her release. She has a plan — a room in Bridgeport, a trade apprenticeship, a life narrow enough to survive — and she has spent eighteen months not wanting anything she can't carry. She doesn't need this. She doesn't need anyone.

Then a woman named Soleil walks into the halfway h...