The door made a soft click as it closed.
Such a small sound—yet after it, the apartment felt suspended in a strange stillness, as if even the air had decided not to move.
The little girl stood in the entryway without taking off her shoes. Her backpack hung from one shoulder, her jacket zipped all the way up to her chin, as though unzipping it would leave her exposed to the world. In her hand, she clutched an old stuffed bunny—worn thin, one ear permanently loose. She twisted that ear between her fingers, the way she always did when she was nervous.
Her mother felt it before she understood it.
It wasn’t just posture. It was the stillness. A stillness too controlled, too polite. Not calm—defensive.
“Hey, sweetheart,” she said gently, the way you approach an injured animal so it doesn’t bolt. “How was it at Dad’s?”
The girl didn’t answer. She stared at the floor, at the lamp’s shadow stretched across the hardwood, and kept turning the bunny’s ear. Once. Twice. Over and over—like a tiny wheel keeping her upright.
Her mother knelt to her level, searching for her eyes.
“Lily?”
The girl swallowed. Her face was frozen, but her lips trembled slightly, as if something enormous were breaking inside her and she was holding it back with all her strength.
“I didn’t like Daddy’s game,” she said at last.
The words landed harder than a scream.
And the beginning of a life where her child would be safe—
no matter the cost.
