“It’s over,” Ivan confirmed, and gave me one of his rare, warm smiles.

“The wall around this family is unbreakable.

I built it that way on purpose.” And I believed him, because I had watched him build it, and because for the first time since that November morning, I felt the truth of it settle into my body — the thing my mind had known for months but my nervous system had refused to accept.

We were safe.