Chapter 6 - Rebuilding the Pieces
With the villains behind bars, the long process of healing began. We moved out of the city entirely, purchasing a small, sunlit house near a lake, surrounded by oak trees. Lily began seeing a child psychologist who specialized in trauma.
Slowly, the sunshine returned to our girl. She began to sing her pancake songs again. She no longer checked under her bed for "the dark box."
Marcus spent every weekend building a massive wooden playground in our backyard. Watching him hammer the swings together, sweat glistening on his forehead while Lily offered him plastic cups of imaginary tea, filled the hollow spaces in my heart.
One evening, while Lily was coloring at the kitchen table, she looked up at Marcus. "Marcus? Are you going to be my daddy forever?"
May you like
Marcus dropped to his knees, taking her small hands in his. "Lily, from the moment I met you, I wanted to be your daddy. If you’ll have me, I will never leave your side."
She threw her arms around his neck. "Yay! Sunshine girls need sunshine daddies!" I watched from the doorway, wiping away tears of absolute gratitude. The family who shared my blood had tried to destroy us, but the man who shared nothing but love was building us back up.
