Time didn’t stop after the verdict.

But it did slow down.

No more emergency motions. No more threats at midnight. No packages wrapped in twisted meaning.

For the first time in a long while, I could breathe.

But I didn’t know how to.

Granny said trauma teaches the body to flinch before it heals.

And mine flinched every morning.

I kept checking the windows. Double-checking the nursery door. Listening for footsteps that would never come again.

The silence became louder than the ...