I rushed to her. She was shaken—more than physically hurt. It was the shock, the humiliation, the sudden feeling of being exposed.
Around us, people watched. Some recorded. Others turned away.
No one stepped in.
The man laughed, brushing off what had just happened as if it were nothing more than a minor delay in his day.
That was the hardest part—not just the cruelty, but the emptiness around it. The realization that sometimes, even in a crowd, you can feel completely alone.
I stood between him and my sister, heart racing, knowing I couldn’t control what might happen next.
And then something shifted.