Chapter 165

"Your past…" Samantha murmured. When she counted the months, she and Layla had only known each other for half a year at most. Throughout their friendship, Layla had always been like a closed book, rarely volunteering details about her life before they met. Samantha respected that privacy and never pressed for answers. But fragments had surfaced over time, piecing together a vague picture of Layla's background. She'd dropped out of school early, thrust into the workforce to survive. A life of hardship, endured alone—no one to care, no one to ask. Samantha often saw Layla forced to drink glass after glass while trying to sell the wine to clients until she collapsed in a drunken stupor. Sometimes she'd find Layla passed out in the break room. Other times, slumped against bathroom stalls or hallway floors—any surface became a bed when she was drunk. Men would leer as they walked past Layla. Whenever Samantha spotted her like that, she'd drag Layla to the dressing room for safety. Ov