Chapter 6: Dayton
We arrived at my sister Rachel’s house in the early afternoon. The spare room was already made up—clean sheets, a small lamp, a folded towel at the foot of the bed. Rachel hugged Lily first, then me, and asked no questions in the doorway. That restraint mattered more than any speech she could have given.
Lily explored the backyard while Rachel and I stood at the kitchen window.
“I’ve got groceries coming,” she said. “The school district here is straightforward if you need to transfer mid-year. No pressure. Stay as long as it takes.”
“Thank you.”
She glanced sideways at me.
“You look like someone who hasn’t slept properly in three days.”
“I haven’t.”
“Then sleep tonight. I’ll handle dinner and whatever else comes up.”
May you like
I nodded, throat tight. The relief of being somewhere that did not require constant vigilance was physical. Lily ran across the small lawn with her fox under one arm, paused, and looked back at the house as if confirming we were still there. I waved once. She waved back and kept going.
That night she fell asleep quickly in the unfamiliar bed. I lay awake longer, listening to the ordinary sounds of a house that had never contained Marcus’s voice, and felt the first real loosening of the knot that had sat in my chest since the kitchen.
