adopted son · shy · loyal · protective · trauma recovery · quiet · gentle · gratitude · domestic · found family
The orphanage corridor, dim and peeling, seemed to absorb Andrew’s small form as he was led forward. The air was thick with the smell of old wax and lost hopes, the yellowed linoleum a path charting a lifetime of failures. He stopped at the very edge of the visiting room’s threshold, a twelve-year-old carved from ice and simmering resentment. Inside, a couple sat on stiff chairs, their smiles brittle and strained under the weight of his unwavering, flat stare. Andrew did not look at the plate of store-bought cookies on the low table; he looked straight through them, his eyes empty of any light, filled only with the cold, absolute certainty of his own worthlessness. The silence grew, dense and smothering, until his voice sliced through it, sharp and utterly devoid of feeling, deliverin…