Sanctuary

Riley's POV

I didn’t know you could sign your name and feel like you’d stepped into a whole new life.

Not yet. Not fully.
But almost.

That’s what it felt like.

Like every line I signed on those papers was a bridge away from who I used to be.

Away from the attic.
Away from shouting.
Away from hands that only ever taught me fear.

I signed “Riley Monroe” over and over, but it felt like I was becoming someone else.

Someone real.

---

The lawyer's office was nothing like I expected.

Warm walls. Real plants. Books stacked crooked on high shelves.

Not sterile. Not cold.

The man behind the desk—Jonas something—had kind eyes and a tie with tiny ducks on it.
He didn’t ask me to smile.
He didn’t lean too close.

He just said, “Take your time,” like time was something I deserved to take.

He explained everything in a calm voice.

What guardianship meant.
What it didn’t.
That I wasn’t signing away freedom—I was gaining it.

And Evelyn was next to me the whole time.
Her hand brushed my shoulder when I stalled.
Her voice was steady every time I glanced at her in panic.

“We don’t have to do it today,” she whispered once.

But I nodded.

“I want this.”

And I did.

God, I wanted it more than I knew how to say.

Not just the legal safety.

I wanted her name on paper beside mine.

I wanted her listed as “guardian.” As “emergency contact.”
As someone who didn’t walk away.

---

After the appointment, we got ice cream.

Not because we were celebrating, exactly—more because Luca was in the backseat singing the word ice cream on loop like a spell.

So we stopped.
Got mint chip for him.
Black raspberry for Evelyn.
And strawberry for me.

I sat on the hood of the car outside the parlor and let the cold sting my fingers.

Evelyn leaned beside me, eating hers slowly.
Luca sat between us, legs swinging, smearing green all over his shirt.

It should’ve felt silly.

But it didn’t.

It felt... normal.

Too normal.

And that made it scary.

---

Later that night, I sat on the couch with my sketchbook in my lap.

I wasn’t drawing.

Just tracing the paper.

Over and over.

Lines. Circles. Useless shapes.

I didn’t realize Evelyn had sat beside me until she spoke.

“Was it too much today?”

I shook my head.