Asher and I follow more slowly. Taking our time. Learning the space that's going to be ours all over again.
“He did good. I’m impressed.” Asher says as he looks around, the space hardly recognizable.
The living room is furnished simply. Couch, chairs, a fireplace that looks like it actually works. The kitchen is modern, stainless steel and granite. The perfect set up for cooking family dinners.
"You'll be in charge of this," I tell Asher.
"Obviously." He opens the fridge, finds it stocked. "Jagger thinks of everything."
Upstairs, Lily has claimed her room. It faces east, morning light streaming through windows that overlook the back field. The walls are white, waiting for paint.
"Can we make them yellow?" she asks.
"Whatever color you want."
She spins in the center of the empty room, arms spread wide, face tilted toward the ceiling. Laughing. Free.
I lean against the doorframe and watch her. This girl who was just a number three weeks ago, ready to slit a mans throat just because a psychopath told her to.
Asher's hand lands on my shoulder.
"You okay?"
"Yeah." I cover his hand with mine. "I'm okay."
"Liar."
"Maybe." I turn my head, meet his eyes. "I keep waiting for something to go wrong. For this to be taken away. For the other shoe to drop."
"Maybe it won't. Maybe this is the part where we get to be happy."
"That sounds like a fantasy."
"It is." He smiles, soft and knowing. "But I think we can handle it."
Lily bounces over, grabs both our hands, drags us into her empty room.
"We should get a rug," she says. "A big fluffy one. And a bookshelf for all my books. And a desk for homework, because Elliot says I have to go to school eventually, even though I already know how to read and do math and speak three languages."
"School is about more than knowing things," Asher says. "It's about making friends. Learning how to be around people your own age."
"I know how to be around people my own age. I spent six months in a cell with forty-six of them."
The words land heavy. A reminder that this child, this bright, laughing child, carries darkness we can only imagine.
"Different kind of being around," I say carefully. "The kind where no one's trying to hurt you. The kind where you're allowed to be a kid."
Lily considers this. Her face goes thoughtful, serious.
"I don't know how to be a kid," she says finally. "I know how to survive. How to obey. How to fight. But I don't know how to be... normal."
"Neither do we." Asher crouches down, and meets her eyes. "Being normal is for chumps anyway. We will figure out how to be us.”
"What if we get it wrong?"
"We will. Definitely. Many times." I take her hands. "But we'll keep trying. That's what matters. We'll make mistakes and learn from them and try again. That's what family does."
"Is that what family does?" She sounds uncertain, testing the word. "I've never had one before."
