The months that followed were neither easy nor fast.
After all, healing rarely was.
It began with silence that wasn’t cold, but still uncertain, testing the new ground they were both learning to walk on. The mansion that once held tension like a storm began to breathe again, little by little, day by day.
Callie was almost nine months old now, growing stronger and more expressive. Her laughter had become the sound of every morning, while Khalil who was growing bigger and walking unsteadily on his own, filled the halls with his babbling and small adventures.
The mansion was no longer a hollow space of echoes, rather, it was full of life again.
And through it all, Kai stayed. Quietly, consistently, without asking for anything in return, especially from her.
Every morning, Abigail would
