Chapter 15
Relle did not return to normal.
There was no normal waiting for her.
She slept with lights on.
Checked doors twice.
Could not stand rooms without windows.
Amara wanted to sleep beside her every night.
Relle wanted that too.
Danielle worried it would become dependence.
I told her to let them decide.
Not my call.
That was another lesson.
Power makes men like me think every problem improves when we choose faster.
Sometimes the right answer is giving choices back to the people who had them taken.
Relle moved into the guesthouse with Amara.
Danielle stayed nearby.
The first week, Relle asked for the sapphire ring.
I gave it to her.
She stared at it for a long time.
Then took it off again.
“I thought I’d want it back immediately.”
“You don’t?”
“I want it to stop being important.”
Fair.
She placed it in Amara’s small keepsake box.
Not hidden.
Not worn.
Just there.
The brass key went beside it.
Amara asked:
“Does this go in Bunny?”
Relle smiled through tears.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Bunny doesn’t have to hide things anymore.”
That sentence stayed with me.
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Fourteen months earlier, Relle had sewn a secret into her daughter’s toy because she believed nobody powerful would listen without proof.
Now the rabbit could simply be a rabbit again.
