CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – LEARNING TO MOVE ON

Cocooned in her own secure little bubble of misery as she focused every ounce of her being on simply surviving each endless day of grueling physical therapy and interminable stillness. Out there, God knew what fresh hells awaited to sap her of what little remained of her strength and sanity. She'd had brief, harrowing glimpses of the rapacious media's renewed zeal for circling her battered carcass like a pack of rabid hyenas, of course. Each time she was forced to brave those anxious journeys to and from her various rehabilitation appointments, the gauntlet of flashbulbs and shouted insults would assault her at every turn. It got to the point where Charlotte started dreading those brief sojourns out into what felt like a literal warzone of harassment. And then, the confined nightmare of having to withstand it all over again...but now without the ability to retreat behind the imagined security of these sterile hospital walls? The mere notion of it had Charlotte's palms instantly