Nadia landed with a ragged gasp behind the school boundary wall bordering the local residents' garden. Her heart hammered to the frantic rhythm of the terror crawling beneath her skin. She didn't flee straight to the city. She knew that if she vanished right now, Uncle Tono would burn their house down—or at the very least, shatter her mother's life.

She had to go back. She had to return home, play it completely normal, and harbor her massive secret deep inside her blue bag.

With trembling fingers, Nadia shoved Mr. Haris's envelope deep into the secret inner lining at the very bottom of her late father's pack. She folded the paper carefully so it wouldn't create a bulky, conspicuous lump. After taking a deep breath to steady the tremors in her lips, she walked home the long way around.

When she reached the house, the atmosphere was dead quiet. Mother Ratna was hanging up laundry along the side of the house, while Uncle Tono sat on the porch, sipping a cigarette. The man's eyes narrowed the moment he saw Nadia step through the gate.

"Where the hell have you been?" Uncle Tono snapped sharply.

Nadia swallowed hard. "Just the school library, Uncle. Looking for old books to sell to the scrap dealer, figured I could make a little extra for rice," she answered calmly, even though her palms were freezing cold.

Uncle Tono grunted, his gaze scouring Nadia's bag with lingering suspicion. "Don't pull any fast ones. Tomorrow Haji is coming. Don't even think about running."

Nadia offered no reply. She simply nodded politely and slipped inside the house. All afternoon, Nadia ground through her routine like clockwork—cleaning the house, prepping dinner out of vegetable scraps, and helping her younger siblings study. She had to play the part of the "defeated" Nadia, the girl mourning her tragic fate, so that not a single soul would suspect that hidden inside her blue canvas bag lay the key to her entire future.

Every time Uncle Tono walked past, Nadia deliberately left her bag sitting out in plain sight, acting as if she had nothing to hide. Yet deep inside, she prayed frantically that no one would touch it.

That night, after Uncle Tono and Budi had grown slightly intoxicated in the living room, Uncle Tono suddenly stood up and stalked straight toward Nadia's room. Nadia, who was faking folding clothes, felt her blood flash-freeze.

"What are you doing, Uncle?" Nadia forced her voice to remain flat.

"I just want to make sure you aren't packing anything to run away with," Uncle Tono barked cruelly.

Without a shred of permission, Uncle Tono snatched Nadia's blue bag. He upended it over the mattress. Notebooks, pencils, and a few threadbare clothes tumbled out in a messy heap. Uncle Tono tore through every compartment. His rough fingers probed the inner pockets, the side pouches, and even pressed hard against the base of the bag.

Nadia held her breath.

The envelope sat right beneath the innermost layer of fabric, tucked behind the stitching she had just repaired. Uncle Tono pressed against that exact spot for a long, agonizing moment, his calloused fingertips kneading the canvas layers. Nadia felt as though the world had stopped spinning. If he ripped that lining open, everything was over.

"Nothing here," Uncle Tono grumbled in disgust. He hurled the bag roughly onto the floor. "As if a stupid kid like you would ever have any money. Even to eat, you have to beg off your mother."

Uncle Tono let out a cynical laugh, then spun on his heel and stormed out of the room, completely ignoring Nadia as she trembled violently on the floor.

Nadia didn't immediately scramble to pick up her belongings. She left the bag lying right where it was, still feeling the phantom weight of Uncle Tono's hands pressing against it. The second the living room door slammed shut, Nadia collapsed to her knees.

She had just slipped through the eye of a needle. Uncle Tono found nothing simply because it never crossed his mind that Nadia, the daughter of a washerwoman, could possess that kind of cash.

Nadia scooped up her bag and crushed it against her chest. She realized she couldn't stay in this house much longer. Uncle Tono was already suspicious, and this search was merely the prologue to tighter surveillance. Before Haji arrived tomorrow, she needed to secure results from her university application and entrance exams. It was Nadia's absolute final window of survival.

I'm sorry, Mom. I have to leave so that one day, all of us can finally live a decent life. And leave she would—straight to college.