Chapter 4 - Morning Light

Morning broke gray and heavy, filtering through thick velvet drapes that covered tall arched windows in the suite. I woke up slumped in the corner of the velvet sofa, a wool throw blanket draped over my shoulders that certainly hadn't been there when I closed my eyes around three in the morning. Across the room, the king-sized bed was empty.

Panic spiked through my chest for a second before I heard the muffled murmur of a low voice coming from the adjoining dressing room. I stood up, smoothing down my rumpled white shirt and black apron, and walked quietly across the hardwood floor.

Julian was kneeling beside the low armchair where the toddler sat wrapped in a black blanket, holding a small wooden toy car in his large hand. The boy was staring at the toy with hollow, red-rimmed eyes, completely unresponsive to Julian's low, rumbling attempts at conversation.

"I tried giving him toast," Julian murmured without looking up as I entered the room. "He won't touch it. He hasn't spoken a single word since they brought him to the lounge last night."

"You're holding it too tight," I said softly, stepping into the light of the dressing room.

Julian looked up, his brow furrowed in a rare display of uncertainty. "It's just a car."

"To you, it's an object," I said, kneeling beside the chair opposite him. I reached out, my fingers brushing against the boy's small, trembling hand where it clutched the edge of the black blanket. "To him, it's just something else that might disappear if he lets go."

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I didn't try to take the toy. Instead, I simply rested the back of my hand against his small knuckles, feeling the heat radiating off his skin. "Hey," I whispered, keeping my voice down to match the quiet hum of the estate. "We're still here. Neither of us is going anywhere."

The boy blinked, a single tear spilling over his lower lash and tracking down his dusty cheek. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, his small fingers relaxed their death grip on the blanket and brushed against my wrist. Julian watched the exchange in absolute stillness, his jaw tightening as he slowly set the wooden car down on the low table between us.