Johnson gave a nervous laugh.
“We were just sorting out her identity.”
Daniel glanced at my swollen cheek.
“With your hand?”
Nobody answered.
The keys shook in Eli’s fingers when the custody supervisor finally handed them over. The cell door opened, but I did not immediately move. For twenty minutes, those bars had defined the limits of my world. Now freedom stood inches away, and my legs refused to believe it.
The medic approached carefully.
“Anna? I’m Rachel. May I examine your face?”
I nodded.
She asked whether I felt dizzy, whether my vision had changed, whether I had lost consciousness. Her ordinary questions nearly undid me. They were the first words anyone had spoken that morning as if my body belonged to me.
Daniel stayed outside the doorway.