Chapter 24 - The WaterSpring arrived.
The party had happened eleven months earlier.
Ava had recently turned four.
Darius still thought of her as three whenever he remembered the pool.
Trauma preserved people at the age they were hurt.
Life did not.
Ava grew.
Her strawberry-blonde hair grew longer.
Her vocabulary expanded.
Her fear changed shape.
She began water therapy with a specialist who worked with young children after frightening experiences.
The first session happened in a heated therapy pool nowhere near the mansion.
Darius sat beside the water.
Emily attended.
Rex waited outside with Malik because animals were not permitted inside.
Ava wore a flotation vest.
When the therapist touched it, Ava began crying.
"Take off."
The therapist immediately stopped.
"No problem."
Darius almost intervened.
Almost said she needed to learn.
Almost pushed.
Then he remembered Leah.
He stayed silent.
Ava eventually touched the vest herself.
Nothing more happened that day.
The second session, she wore it.
The third, she sat on the pool edge.
The fourth, she put both feet in.
Progress was measured in inches.
Months earlier, Darius would have hated that pace.
Now he respected it.
One afternoon Ava asked why Nia had pushed her.
Darius had prepared for the question.
His prepared answer disappeared the moment she asked.
He chose something simpler.
"Nia wanted things that weren't hers, and she made very bad choices because of it."
"She no like me?"
Darius's chest tightened.
"Something can be wrong with how a person loves. That doesn't mean there was something wrong with you."
Ava considered.
"She mad at Mommy Leah?"
Darius stared.
"Who told you that?"
"Emily."
Later he confronted Emily.
She frowned.
"I told Ava Nia had complicated feelings about Leah after Ava asked why Nia removed Leah's photograph. I did not tell a four-year-old the prison confession."
Darius relaxed.
"Good."
Emily smiled.
"Look at you asking before accusing."
"Don't sound so surprised."
"I've known you a long time."
By early summer, Ava could stand in waist-deep water while holding the therapist's hands.
The day she floated for three seconds, Darius turned away so she would not see him crying.
That evening they returned home.
Ava walked toward the mansion pool.
Darius followed several feet behind.
Rex walked beside her.
The pale stone had been resurfaced.
The safety gate upgraded.
Multiple alarms installed.
None of that changed the memory.
Ava stopped at the low edge where Rex had pulled her out.
She crouched.
Touched the stone.
"Here?"
Darius knew what she meant.
"Yes."
"Rex pull me here?"
"Yes."
Ava looked at Rex.
The German Shepherd sat.
"Good boy."
Rex's tail moved.
Ava turned to Darius.
"You mad him."
Darius swallowed.
"Yes."
"You say go away."
"Yes."
Ava's expression became solemn.
"Bad Daddy."
Emily, standing several yards away, covered her mouth.
Darius almost laughed.
"Yes. That was a bad Daddy decision."
Ava nodded.
Then she touched his neck tattoo.
"But Daddy say sorry."
"I did."
"Rex forgive."
Darius looked at the dog.
"I hope so."
Ava took his hand.
"Tomorrow pool?"
He stared at her.
"You want to swim here?"
Ava thought.
"Little."
"Little is good."
The next afternoon Malik placed towels beside the pool.
Emily checked the safety equipment.
The therapist came to the mansion.
Nobody invited guests.
Nobody turned it into an event.
Ava entered from the shallow steps holding Darius's hand.
Rex paced beside the edge.
Water reached Ava's ankles.
Then knees.
She stopped.
Darius waited.
Ava took one more step.
Then she smiled.
Not a dramatic smile.
A small one.
Her own.
Darius understood something.
Nia had chosen this pool as a place to create fear because she believed fear could permanently rewrite a person.
She had been wrong.
Fear left marks.
But marks were not ownership.
Ava squeezed Darius's fingers.
"Don't let go."
"I won't."
She looked at him.
"Promise?"
Darius remembered every reckless promise he had ever made.
This one required something different.
"I'll hold on as long as you want me to."
Ava nodded.
That answer was enough.
The next morning she woke early and disappeared into the craft room with Emily.
When Darius tried to enter, Ava shouted, "No peek!"
He backed away.
May you like
On the table lay a pale gift box.
And beside it, a lavender ribbon.
