“I’ll do it,” she said. “But I’m not finishing anything.”

Jecca tucked the money into a jar labeled RENT . It was still mostly empty, but she didn’t mind. For the first time in years, she wasn’t counting the gaps.

It started accidentally. She was at a laundromat, folding a sweater that would never be finished, when a woman beside her began crying into a dryer. Jecca, who had no business offering comfort, sat down and said, “Tell me what you stopped doing.”

However, the damage to her reputation has already been done. Jacobs' influence and reach have been significantly diminished, and she's faced intense scrutiny from both the public and her peers.