Chapter 17 - The HealingHealing did not happen overnight.
Some mornings, Eleanor woke up terrified.
Sometimes she heard metal scraping and thought she was back inside the cage.
Sometimes Clara found her standing in the hallway at three in the morning.
She never asked why.
She simply sat beside her.
One night, Eleanor said:
"I don't want to be afraid anymore."
Clara squeezed her hand.
"You don't have to pretend you're not."
"I don't want them to own a piece of me."
"They don't."
Eleanor looked toward the window.
The cage was gone.
The patch of dead grass where it had stood was already being replaced.
Clara had planted roses there.
Not because roses could erase the past.
They couldn't.
But because something beautiful deserved to grow where something terrible had once stood.
Weeks passed.
Eleanor began eating better.
She walked farther.
She laughed again.
May you like
And slowly, the house stopped feeling like a prison.
It became a home.
