Chapter 1: The First Word
Elodie didn’t stop when she reached the last step.
She stumbled the final two steps, nearly falling, and collided into Sadie’s arms with a force that made everyone in the room inhale sharply.
For a second, she didn’t speak.
She just clung.
Her tiny fingers twisted into the fabric of Sadie’s sweater, the silver key pressed between them, her breathing uneven against Sadie’s shoulder.
Sadie didn’t rush her. Didn’t pull back. She simply held her.
And then, in a voice so fragile it almost broke before it formed—
“Stay.”
The word cracked through the silence like glass.
Rowan felt it in his chest before he fully understood it.
His daughter had spoken.
May you like
Not to him.
Not to the therapists.
Not to the structured world he had built around her grief.
To Sadie.
