I love this story, but it made me cry. I just wanted so badly for her to have that friend, and for both of them to be survivors together. This is one strong and resilient young lady, though. At the end, I felt confident that she'll pull through and find her way.
You write so beautifully, 
About AI images... yeah, that's a tough one. Here in The Ink Well, I'm generally just looking at the quality of the writing and shrug at whatever image the writer chose. For my part, I sometimes generate images when I just can't find the thing I'm looking for on Pixabay, Pexels, etc. Or I finally find what I want on one of those sites and it's a "premium" image. What the...? But with a prompt I can create the exact atmosphere and scenario I'm going for. It actually feels like a creative process — writing the prompt, choosing an image style, refining my request, etc. Certainly more creative than picking something from a lineup on Pixabay. And you know what else? I'm starting to see a lot of AI generated images on those image sites. So, selecting an image from Pixabay et al is no more work and will sometimes result in choosing an AI image created by someone else.
I'm not defending the use of AI, especially when it's the lazy way out, and when it deadens people's creativity, but as I mentioned in our private chat, I see the benefits of using it with discretion. My personal use of AI is always about enhancing my creativity, giving me new ideas, expanding my thought processes, teasing out different ways of approaching a writing prompt, getting editorial feedback, etc. (Seriously - I'll ask an AI to give me ideas for ways to make a story more suspenseful, for example, and then toy with all the ideas it suggests. Very fun. And um... somewhat addictive.)
RE: Treasure