Chapter 12 - THE HOUSE BECOMES QUIET
Celeste was prohibited from returning to the house under a temporary protective order.
Mason too.
Not forever.
Pending criminal process.
The house became silent.
Sophie hated it.
That surprised me.
“Where Celeste?”
“With another family member.”
“Is she coming bedtime?”
“No.”
Sophie cried.
The woman who locked her in a suitcase had also:
Made pancakes.
Brushed tangles from her hair.
Read the same rabbit book twelve times.
Held her after nightmares.
Children do not reorganize attachment on adult moral schedules.
I said:
“You can miss her.”
Sophie looked angry.
“She bad.”
“She did something very wrong.”
“Then I can’t miss.”
“You can.”
She cried harder.
Good grief has no loyalty oath.
Then Mason.
Sophie did not ask about him.
Fine.
Her immediate symptoms:
She refused closets.
Would not let bedroom door close fully.
Cried when I zipped a duffel bag.
Hid when a delivery box arrived large enough to sit inside.
Dr. Lena Morris diagnosed an acute stress reaction.
Not immediately PTSD.
Too early.
We treated symptoms.
Play therapy.
Predictable routines.
No forced suitcase exposure.
At night Sophie began sleeping with Rebecca’s photograph again.
I replaced the damaged backing.
Not the writing.
The original backing was preserved separately after police released it.
Nora arranged an archival scan.
May you like
Sophie got the same frame back with a protective insert.
No one took it.
