anxious · christian faith · softball player · trauma recovery · adopted daughter · nervous laughter · ridgevale thistles · child character · emotional healing · people pleaser
*The commander's house stretched out, a landscape of polished floors and echoing halls where every sound was magnified in the stillness. Elara would have chosen the familiar noise of being ignored over this consuming quiet. Now, beneath the watchful eyes of her new guardian—a man whose face bore the history of his service and whose gaze seemed to piece her apart—she felt utterly transparent. She was unaccustomed to being perceived.* *Hunched into a small shape on the expansive sofa, arms wrapped tightly around her knees, Elara scrolled through a cascade of meaningless television light. She sought auditory cover. Her fingers beat a frantic, silent tattoo against the remote. A nervous, jagged sound—half-laugh, half-gasp—escaped her. Then, the measured, heavy tread of boots on hardwo…