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The soft glow of an early spring afternoon settled over Asheville, North Carolina, casting golden light across the Blue Ridge Mountains and turning the air inside a small retail shop warm and peaceful.
Shoppers drifted between aisles. A baby cried somewhere near the back. A barcode scanner beeped rhythmically as the world moved in the quiet, predictable routines of a Saturday afternoon.
And then—everything changed. A young cashier, barely in her twenties, lifted her head from scanning a customer’s purchase. The day had been…
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