Lily recovered slowly. Daniel moved with her to a smaller, sunlit home near a lake, where she could sleep without fear and run outside again. They planted sunflowers together because Lily said they always look toward the sun. She returned to school, started drawing bright houses and gardens, and named her old porcelain doll Hope.
One day she showed Daniel a picture of a small house, yellow flowers, and two people standing together. At the bottom she had written in a child’s hand: You, Daddy, and me, where there is light.
Daniel looked at her and understood that, although darkness had almost swallowed them both, love had brought them back in time.
