Jason enters the library, confident and nervous at the same time. Lola and Roja are still talking about books, so he asks his sister to leave. Lola looks at Roja to see if she is fine with her leaving. When she walks out, she gives her brother a warning look while trying to figure out what he’s up to. Although their mother said that everything goes by plan, Lola’s not quite convinced yet.

As Lola is gone, Jason sits down on one of the chairs in front of the fireplace. “I wanted to ask you something. It’s about your birthday,” he starts off the conversation. “I thought, maybe, I could take you somewhere after the party,” he says while noticing that this could sound very wrong to her. “Nothing bad!” he adds and sees Roja relaxing a bit. “You know, there are still a lot of things to talk about. We’ll have to talk about your freedom in this house if you’ll stay here for more than just these few days,” Jason explains the reason for his suggestion. In his head, he adds, “And I need to find out if Mum is right.”

Roja nods, unsure about what she should say to this. Jason tries to make it seem less like a plain business meeting, “You can celebrate your birthday and when you get bored at the party, we can leave.” Roja still doesn’t really understand where this is coming from but pushes her concerns aside by assuming Jason’s just in a better mood now. A part of her doesn’t even plan on going somewhere with Jason but another part of her wants to trust him and understand him. She feels as if she’ll have to give in to Jason’s orders anyway if he wants to talk to her in private.

After a few moments of silence, Jason looks around a bit unsure before saying, “I’m also supposed to ask you if you have any birthday wishes.”

“Not really,” Roja replies. All these years, she wished for her parents to be alive again. Since this wish will never come true, she never even thought about anything else. Additionally, Ric never even cared about her birthday so she didn’t think about any wishes other than surviving till the next day.

“I saw you looking for a book earlier, did you find it?” Jason asks, pulling Roja out of her thoughts again.

“No, but I don’t even really remember the title so I didn’t expect to find it. I was just looking for titles and covers that seem familiar,” Roja answers.

“Then why were you searching for it?”

“It’s my favourite book. I haven’t read it in years.”

“Maybe we don’t have it,” Jason points out. Roja looks around, then back at Jason.

“You have around ten thousand books here!” Roja replies and Jason can’t hold back a laugh.

“Not ten thousand, but a lot. What was the book about? Maybe I know it,” Jason suggests. So, Roja starts telling him everything she knows about this book. She starts with a short summary but soon gets lost in telling him every detail about the characters. Half an hour later, she runs out of information and notices that she’s been talking for a while now. “I can help you look for it,” Jason offers but Roja tells him that he shouldn’t spend his time on this. “I have nothing better to do,” he explains while thinking to himself, “Except for working at the warehouse and planning shipments, but who cares? I’ve got Oren and Rover for that!” There’s this peaceful atmosphere again that he seems to find wherever Roja is. He pulls out his phone and types in some of the keywords and character names that Roja mentioned. Clearly interested, Roja watches him. The slight smile on Jason’s face almost shows Roja that he found the book, but he is able to hide that from her. He just found the perfect birthday present.

***

In the evening, Lola, Lucia and Roja leave the house in a black van driven by one of the bodyguards. Lola tries to explain that it’s completely normal for rich people to have a driver but Roja thinks it’s awkward, especially when she sees three more bodyguards following them in another car. At the mall, the dangerous-looking guys follow them and make Roja a bit uncomfortable. As they enter a shop, there is nobody else but them and an employee.

Roja can't hold back her astonishment when she sees all the beautiful clothes. “I’ve already picked out three dresses for you to try on,” the employee explains and points to one of the fitting rooms.

“Go try them on!” Lola demands and pulls Roja towards the fitting room. Lucia stays back a bit to let the girls have their fun. The soft smile on her face shows how happy she is for her daughter. Lola’s enthusiasm is contagious and makes Roja try on the first dress right away.

However, she struggles to zip it up, “Lola? I think I need your help here.” Lola peeks into the small fitting room and sees the issue right away.

“Let me help you, that’s an easy task for a best friend like…” Lola starts but forgets what she wanted to say when she sees a big scar on Roja’s back.

Although she doesn’t say anything about it, Roja knows exactly why her friend stopped in the middle of her sentence. There are more bruises on her back that Mary hasn’t even seen yet, so nobody knows about them. Roja turns away while trying to avoid her friend’s look. “You should… let Mary have a look at those, they must have been there for quite a few days now,” Lola mentions while placing a hand on Roja’s shoulder. “It’s okay, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. If anything, the scars just show how strong you are,” Lola continues, more confident again now. Roja looks at her, still a bit unsure.

The purple-haired girl continues zipping up the dress and lets Roja see herself in the mirror. The dress covers up the scar on her back but leaves some bruises visible. Lola tries to cover them up with Roja’s hair but quickly notices that it won’t stay there throughout a party. “You can try another one, the red one covers up more,” Lola suggests and unzips the dress again. She hands Roja the red dress and leaves the fitting room. The red dress has the zipper on the side, so Roja can easily zip it up herself. As she sees herself in the mirror wearing that dress, she knows it’s the one she wants to wear on her birthday. It covers up her bruises perfectly.

As she takes a step out of the fitting room, she sees Lola smiling at her. Lucia comes closer to get a better look and says, “This dress looks amazing on you. How do you feel?” Roja can’t hold back a little smile, which answers Lucia’s question. Lola grabs two bracelets she found while Roja was changing and shows it to her friend.

“I thought maybe those could help a bit as well,” she explains while putting the bracelets on Roja’s wrists. Now even the scars and bruises on her wrists are hidden. For the first time in many years, Roja sees herself without the pain written all over her body. The feeling’s refreshing, like a new beginning.