Lana did not react immediately.
Her expression froze, disbelief warring visibly with longing, with memory, with instinctive caution born from trauma that had not yet fully released its grip.
Then slowly, almost reverently, she stepped closer.
“Say it again,” she said.
“He’s caught,” Lena repeated, voice stronger now. “He cannot hurt anyone anymore.”
Lana exhaled — a long, shaking breath that seemed pulled from the deepest part of her body — and for a moment she simply stood there, shoulders trembling, eyes bright with tears she had never allowed herself to show.
Then she laughed.
Not lightly.
Not playfully.
But with the fierce, incredulous sound of someone who had stared at fear too long and suddenly found herself free of it.
She dropped to her knees beside Lena and wrapped her a
