163!

AURORA

“No way,” I dropped the photo, shocked and confused.

“I double checked Aurora,” Martin said to me. “I have medical records to prove it,” I heard some raffling behind me and I turned.

“How did you get those?” I asked him. He tilted his head. Right, knowing the answer to that is probably a bad idea.

“How can this be possible?” I asked. “What, he just woke up one morning and decided not to be a woman?”

Martin sighed, running a hand through his hair as if trying to untangle the mess of thoughts in his head. His eyes met mine, filled with something between sympathy and disbelief.

“Look, it’s not like he just decided one day. From what I’ve pieced together, it was years in the making, a struggle buried beneath layers of secrecy and shame.” He paused, holding up one of the papers. “The records show treatments, therapy sessions… it was deliberate, Aurora.”

I picked up the photo again, my fingers trembling slightly. The face staring back at me was both familiar and alien, a ghost of th