Chapter 2 - The Child Who Feared the Safe Person
Three months earlier, Gideon believed Lumi hated him.
Every time Maris left them alone, the little girl cried.
Not loudly.
Not like a tantrum.
She would sit on the edge of the sofa, hands tucked beneath her legs, tears sliding silently down her face.
The moment Maris returned, Lumi stopped.
Maris always gave the same explanation.
“She has abandonment issues.”
Gideon believed her at first.
Maris was Lumi’s mother.
She spoke confidently.
She had answers for everything.
Why Lumi woke screaming.
Why she refused to eat certain foods.
Why she flinched when adults raised their hands.
Why she begged to sleep with the hallway light on.
“She’s dramatic,” Maris would say.
“She learned it from her father.”
Lumi’s biological father had died in a house fire when she was four.
Maris rarely spoke about him except to call him reckless.
Gideon had met Maris two years later.
He fell in love slowly.
She was beautiful, direct, and fiercely protective of her daughter.
At least, that was what he thought.
After they married, Maris began leaving Lumi with him during Gideon’s days off.
That was when the crying began.
Gideon tried everything.
Pancakes shaped like stars.
Blanket forts.
Movies.
Trips to the park.
Nothing worked.
One afternoon, he found Lumi hiding beneath the kitchen table.
“Did I scare you?” he asked gently.
She shook her head.
“Did I do something wrong?”
Another shake.
“Then why are you crying?”
Lumi stared at the doorway.
“Mom says crying makes men leave.”
Gideon’s chest tightened.
“I’m not leaving because you cry.”
She looked almost confused.
Then Maris came home.
The second she heard the door, Lumi wiped her face and sat upright.
Maris walked in smiling.
“See? She was fine.”
Gideon looked at the child.
Lumi stared at the floor.
That night, he asked Maris what she had told her.
Maris laughed.
“You are taking a seven-year-old too seriously.”
“She said you told her men leave when she cries.”
“I told her not to manipulate you.”
“She wasn’t manipulating me.”
“You don’t know her like I do.”
The sentence ended the conversation.
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But it did not end Gideon’s doubt.
👉 Gideon began watching Lumi more carefully—and the first thing he noticed was that she never cried until Maris left the room.
