“I was trying to keep them safe,” she said tearfully.
Michael shook his head, overwhelmed. “You kept them hidden from the person who loved them most.”
“You weren’t lying,” he said.
“No, sir.”
He gave her every dollar he had with him. “This will help your mother. Thank you for your courage.”Michael returned to the house, steadier now. “The girls come with me tonight,” he said to Hannah. “We will figure the rest out later.”
Ava and Lily didn’t resist, but they clung to each other as he guided them to the car. They were quiet all the way back to his home in North Phoenix—a home that had been silent for too long.
When he showed them their old room, preserved exactly as it had been two years earlier, something softened. The twin beds, the big stuffed bear, the shelves of storybooks—everything was waiting for them.
“I remember this,” Ava whispered, brushing her hand over a pillow.Michael called his brother Daniel, who arrived overwhelmed with emotion. They stayed up late, filling the house with warmth and small comforts.
The next morning, Michael arranged support for the girls with a respected child specialist. She met with them several times a week, helping them rebuild trust and understand the complicated story they had lived through.
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