Straight toward Maya.
Maya froze.
The little fingers curled around hers, gripping with surprising strength, as if anchoring herself to something she recognized… something she trusted beyond instinct.
Maya swallowed hard.
“You know me, don’t you?” she whispered.
Lily’s eyes fluttered open just for a second—calm, warm, familiar—and then closed again, her breathing steady.
Maya felt something shift inside her chest.
Something deep.
Something she didn’t have words for.
Downstairs, Nathaniel sat at the long dining table, staring at a document he hadn’t read for the past ten minutes.
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