Robert POV
The first thing I noticed the next morning wasn't the house.
It was Mian.
She was already awake before everyone else.
Standing barefoot in the garden with a watering can in her hand.
She wasn't actually watering the flowers.
She had been standing in the same spot for nearly five minutes.
Lost in thought.
Just like she used to.
I walked outside quietly.
"You'll drown that rose if you keep pouring water into the same pot."
She jumped slightly before looking over her shoulder.
"You still sneak up on people."
"You still daydream."
She looked at the rose bush.
"...I wasn't paying attention."
"I know."
For a while we stood side by side.
The morning breeze carried the scent of wet earth after the night's rain.
"You've changed," I finally said.
She laughed softly.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"They're wrong."
She frowned.
"I don't think you've changed."
She looked genuinely confused.
"What?"
"I think you've buried yourself."
Silence.
"I don't think the real Mian disappeared."
I looked directly at her.
"I think she got tired and hid."
Her fingers tightened around the watering can.
"...You always knew what to say."
"No."
"I just knew you."
---
Mian POV
Nobody had ever spoken to me like that.
Not Kael.
Not Isle.
Not even the Husband.
Because they only knew the woman I had become.
Robert remembered the girl I had been.
There was a difference.
A painful one.
"Do you remember the lake?"
he suddenly asked.
I blinked.
"The old lake outside town?"
He nodded.
"The one where you nearly drowned trying to rescue a duck."
"Oh, don't remind me."
"You insisted the duck was asking for help."
"It looked distressed."
Robert burst into laughter.
"The duck attacked you."
"It did."
"You cried because the duck hated you."
"It was a very ungrateful duck."
For the first time in days...
I laughed until my stomach hurt.
---
Isle POV
I froze halfway down the staircase.
The sound...
It was laughter.
Not polite laughter.
Not forced laughter.
The kind that escaped before someone could stop it.
I looked toward the garden.
Mian was laughing.
Actually laughing.
She bent forward slightly as Robert wiped tears from his own eyes.
For a second...
I couldn't recognize her.
Not because she looked different.
Because she looked alive.
Kael appeared beside me.
"You've never heard her laugh like that, have you?"
I slowly shook my head.
"No."
"Neither have I."
His voice wasn't jealous.
It was thoughtful.
"I think we're meeting a version of Mian that none of us ever had the chance to know."
---
The Husband POV
Breakfast was louder than usual.
Robert had somehow convinced Mian to tell embarrassing childhood stories.
"So she really climbed onto the school roof?"
Kael asked.
Robert nodded enthusiastically.
"To prove pigeons weren't scary."
The Husband stared at Mian.
"You?"
Mian covered her face.
"I was ten."
"You fell off the roof."
"I landed in a hay cart."
Robert pointed dramatically.
"And she still insisted it was a successful experiment."
Everyone laughed.
Even Kael nearly spilled his coffee.
Mian groaned.
"I cannot believe you're telling these stories."
Robert grinned.
"I've waited twelve years."
"You've become evil."
"I learned from you."
The room echoed with laughter again.
For a brief moment...
The house finally felt like a home.
---
Kael POV
Later that afternoon, Kael found Robert sitting alone on the veranda.
"You love her."
The words came without accusation.
Robert looked toward the garden where Mian was helping Isle trim flowers.
"I do."
Kael wasn't surprised.
"For how long?"
Robert smiled sadly.
"Long enough to know that forcing someone to love you never works."
Kael folded his arms.
"Then why come back?"
Robert took a slow breath.
"Because I heard she stopped smiling."
Silence settled between them.
"I didn't come back to rescue her."
"I came back to remind her she still deserves happiness."
Kael studied him for several seconds.
Then...
He offered his hand.
Robert looked at it.
"What for?"
"I think we'll get along."
Robert laughed before shaking it.
"I hope so."
---
Mian POV
That evening Robert handed me another small object.
An old silver keychain shaped like a tiny star.
"You still have this?"
"You gave it to me."
I frowned.
"I don't remember."
"You won it at a school fair."
He smiled gently.
"You said lucky things only worked if they were shared."
Slowly...
Fragments of forgotten memories returned.
Children running through crowded festival stalls.
Bright lights.
Fireworks.
The smell of roasted peanuts.
Robert complaining because he'd lost every game.
Me teasing him because I had won.
I laughed quietly.
"I really said that?"
"You did."
"I sounded very wise."
"You sounded eight."
I rolled my eyes.
He laughed.
Then his expression softened.
"I missed my best friend."
The words caught me off guard.
Best friend.
Not responsibility.
Not obligation.
Just...
Friend.
I hadn't realized how much I needed to hear that.
---
Final Scene – Isle POV
Late that night, I stood outside the library.
The door was slightly open.
Inside, Robert sat alone looking through an old family album.
He wasn't smiling anymore.
He looked...
Concerned.
He gently touched one photograph before whispering to himself,
"They really never knew who you were..."
I looked at the picture.
It showed Mian.
Standing in the background of a family gathering.
Everyone else was laughing.
She was smiling too.
But now that I knew her...
I could see it.
It never reached her eyes.
Robert quietly closed the album.
Without noticing me, he whispered one final sentence.
"I'm here now."
"I won't let you carry everything alone again."
Outside the library, I quietly stepped away.
Maybe Robert hadn't returned to change Mian.
Maybe...
He had returned to remind her that she had never been alone in the first place.
End of Chapter 70