"Excuse me! Your wallet! You dropped your wallet!" she panted, her voice quivering with both anxiety and determination.

Breathless, she watched the figure come to a halt. One of her clogs had loosened and fallen off, a sensation familiar from her rural upbringing where she often ran barefoot. The sweat on her brow stung the scars on her back, remnants of her desperate attempts to escape the clutches of her past.