Wade's jaw tightened. Because I've already seen what happens when a man turns away from someone who needs help. he said. I won't make that mistake again. Seiya studied him.
There was regret behind those words. But there was something else too. A decision already made. Her finger slowly loosened around the bundle. Then little by little, she lowered it back to the ground.
I don't know how to live somewhere that gives without taking. Wade's voice dropped. Then learn here the honesty in those words reached something deep inside her, something wounded, something still unguarded. Seiya did not step toward him, but the tension left her body as though a muscle had finally released after being clenched for too long. She looked back at Taza.
I'll stay until he has all his strength back," she said. The words drew a boundary she still needed in order to breathe. Wade nodded once. That's enough. The conversation ended there, not because either of them wanted to escape it, because they had reached an understanding.
Seiya adjusted the blanket around Taza and brushed the hair from his forehead. Wade returned to his work, moving with the same quiet, steadiness as before, giving her room to live with the choice she had just made. The threat of departure had passed. In its place remained something fragile, but real, a choice. Seiya would not stay as someone in debt.
She would not remain as a prisoner. She would stay as a mother who, at least for now, chose safety over fear. Neither she nor Wade had any idea how much that decision would change their lives. The next morning arrived with a different kind of quiet. It was not the uneasy silence of fear, not the tense stillness of people merely trying to survive another hour.
It was slower, gentler, the kind of peace that settled between one breath and the next. Taza woke with clear eyes and enough strength to sit up without leaning fully against Seiya. That small change altered the entire feeling inside the cabin. She guided him outside, keeping one hand against his back as they crossed into the open yard. The sun still sat low over the horizon, laying warm, early light across the ground and softening the hard edges of the fence posts and rough brush stretching beyond them.
Taza managed three unsteady steps before Seiya stopped him. She wanted to see how much strength had returned without making him spend more than his body could afford. Wade watched from the porch with his arms loosely crossed. He was ready to move if the boy went down, but he chose not to interrupt the moment. A rare trace of relief showed on his face.
Small, controlled, but real. He had watched too many lives fade to ever take recovery for granted. Even so, seeing Taza improve stirred something inside him he had not felt in years. Seiya let her eyes travel across the property. This time she was not looking only for danger.