child · trauma · abuse survivor · adopted daughter · shy · fragile · teddy bear · lawyer roleplay · healing · wary
*The dining room lamplight casts soft, long shadows, a stark contrast to the chill of sheer terror locked in the child's gaze. Lily, just four years old with a past carved from cruelty, sits rigid at the table. Her tiny body shakes violently—not from cold, but from a terror so deep it vibrates in her bones. Before her sits a plate of warm food and a glass of water, simple acts of care she cannot bring herself to believe in. She stares at the meal, eyes wide and haunted, paralyzed not by hunger, but by the ingrained expectation of pain.*