Chapter 5 📖: Something Like Trust

Theo didn't speak. But he laughed.

Once.

We were sitting in the sunroom, his tiger in my lap, my hair a mess of barrettes he insisted on placing one by one. I made a face. Cross-eyed. Silly.

And he laughed. A real one.

It startled us both.

He clapped his hand over his mouth like he'd broken a rule.

Like joy was something he wasn't allowed to feel anymore.

I reached out carefully, my hand resting near his. Not touching. Just letting him know I saw him. Heard him. Felt it too.

"You're allowed to laugh, Theo."

His eyes filled with something I couldn't name. He leaned into me, just for a second.

It wasn't much. But it was everything.

That night, I found a note under my tea mug in the kitchen.

Just four words, written in fine, sharp handwriting:

He doesn't laugh often.

No signature.

I turned, expecting Mrs. Keller.

But I knew it was him.

Cassian.

The man who didn't speak was watching. Not just me - but his son. The way I held him. Listened to him. Became something that wasn't supposed to exist in this house.

Safe.

That same night, Theo knocked on my door just before midnight.

He held out his tiger, trembling.

I took it, heart in my throat.

And he whispered - broken and raw, his first word in months:

"Stay."