Chapter 14 - THE DAY BUNNY CAME HOME
Ruthie got Bunny back fourteen months after the park.
The device stayed with authorities as required.
The rabbit did not.
Evidence staff returned the toy with the ear carefully opened.
Ruthie held him like somebody returning from war.
“Where’s the light?”
“Gone.”
“Forever?”
“Yes.”
She inspected the torn seam.
“Can you fix him?”
I could.
That mattered more than I expected.
I bought thread.
White at first.
Then Ruthie changed her mind.
“Yellow.”
“Why?”
“So we know where he got fixed.”
I stopped.
Every instinct in me wanted invisible stitches.
Make the damage disappear.
Instead, I used yellow thread.
Small bright line across the gray ear.
Hadley watched.
“Does Daddy know where we live now?”
“No.”
That answer was accurate enough.
Our address had protections.
School routines changed.
Information sharing tightened.
“Does Grandpa Gary?”
“Yes.”
Hadley looked at me sharply.
I understood.
“He doesn’t give our address to anyone.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t know everything.”
I tied the final knot in Bunny’s ear.
“But trust isn't knowing somebody can never hurt you.”
Hadley waited.
“It’s watching what they do when they have the chance.”
She thought about that.
Gary had been consistent for more than a year.
Never came uninvited.
Never asked the girls to keep secrets.
Never contacted Trent.
Never complained about boundaries.
Still, I did not give him a key.
Progress is not amnesia.
That evening Ruthie slept with Bunny against her neck.
The yellow seam glowed beneath the night-light.
May you like
For the first time, the toy no longer felt like Trent’s device.
It belonged to her again.
