Chapter 18 - The Safe House
The transition was not a movie; it was a slow, delicate reconstruction of a shattered world.
By federal order, June—she still answered to Maya, and we did not force the change—was placed in temporary protective custody under the direct supervision of Dr. Sarah Lin, a renowned child trauma psychologist appointed by the court.
For the first two weeks, we lived in a state-owned transitional cottage near the state capital.
Adam and I slept in the adjoining bedroom with the door open. Every morning, Dr. Lin would spend two hours with June, helping her process the truth: that Claire and Victor Sterling were not her biological parents, that the grand mansion in Oakridge was built on a lie, and that the family who had searched for her had never stopped loving her.
On the third day, June asked to see pictures of her siblings.
I sat beside her on the braided rug of the cottage living room, opening the original leather photo album my mother had kept in the cedar chest.
June stared at the photograph of the four plastic bassinets in Room 412. She touched the yellowed card that read *Baby D – June*.
"That's me?" she whispered.
"That's you, baby," I said softly.
She turned the page. There were photos of Caleb learning to ride his two-wheel bike with training wheels, his knees scuffed with grass stains. There were photos of Nora singing in the church choir, her mouth wide open in a toothless grin. There were photos of Tess holding a rescue kitten against her chest.
June looked at Tess's face for a long time. She reached up and touched the tiny dark freckle beneath her own left eye, then tapped the photo of Tess.
"She has my spot," June murmured.
"You have her spot," I corrected gently, smiling through my tears. "You were born two minutes after her. You held her hand inside my tummy for seven months."
June looked up at me, her large hazel eyes searching mine with that profound, startling clarity.
"Did they really save my cake?"
"Caleb wanted to put four candles on his slice," Adam said from the doorway, holding two mugs of hot chocolate. "Nora wouldn't let him. She said your slice had to stay in the freezer until you came home to blow it out yourself."
A tiny, tentative smile touched the corners of June's lips. It was the first real smile we had seen on her face since the rescue.
"Is Caleb funny?" she asked.
"He thinks he is," Adam laughed, sitting on the rug beside her. "He tells terrible knock-knock jokes. Nora is the boss of the house. And Tess... Tess will share every single toy she owns with you, except her green dinosaur."
June took a sip of her hot chocolate, leaving a faint mustache of white foam above her lip.
"I have a green dinosaur too," she whispered shyly. "His name is Barnaby. He's still at Highland Manor."
"We'll get you ten Barnabys," Adam promised, his voice cracking. "A hundred."
May you like
"Just one is okay," June said softly, leaning her small shoulder against my arm. "As long as I can show him to Tess."
***
