For weeks, both children distrusted any liquid they hadn’t watched me pour with their own eyes — Rhys checking the factory seal on every bottle, Mira watching from the doorway whenever I opened a carton.

I never once told them they were being silly.

I just poured slowly, where they could see, every time, for as long as it took.

Chapter 21 — A New Normal

The doctors promised me Rhys would heal completely in his body.

The rest would take longer, for both of them, and I stopped expecting either child to simply get over it.