She obeyed like a prisoner taking a mugshot. The machine’s eye scanned her pores, the geometry of her cheekbones, the distance between her pupils. Somewhere in a server farm, an algorithm was deciding if she was real.

And for the first time in fourteen years, she didn’t know who she was supposed to be online. No likes. No comments. No digital echo of her existence.

But in the silence, she heard her son breathing in the next room. She felt the weight of her own hands in her lap.

Then:

But something was wrong. A notification banner hung at the top: “Welcome back, Maya. We’ve locked your account due to suspicious activity. Please verify your phone number.”

She pressed "Start Video."