Chapter 5 - Dawn Over Elmwood Terrace
Three days later, the digital storm had reached national headlines, but inside the sunlit kitchen of Elias’s temporary quarters near the base, the world was quiet, warm, and safe.
The ex parte custody order had been converted into permanent sole legal and physical custody by Judge Holloway, with a strict restraining order barring Josephine, Bonnie, and her sisters within five hundred miles of Matilda. Josephine’s social media accounts had been permanently scrubbed and seized by federal cyber-investigators as digital evidence of child exploitation, stripping her of every single follower and dollar she had tried to gain.
Matilda sat at the wooden kitchen table, wearing a brand-new pair of fuzzy pink pajamas, happily dipping a spoon into a bowl of warm oatmeal piled high with fresh strawberries.
Elias sat across from her, a steaming mug of coffee between his hands, watching the sunlight catch the golden strands of her hair.
"Daddy," Matilda looked up, her dark eyes wide and serious, though the shadows of fear that had haunted her three days ago were completely gone. "Are we ever going back to that house?"
Elias smiled softly, reaching across the table to gently brush a stray lock of hair from her forehead.
"Never, sweet girl," he said firmly, his voice steady and absolute. "Our new home is right here. And nobody—not family, not strangers, nobody—is ever getting between you and me again."
Matilda beamed, a bright, beautiful smile that crinkled her nose just like her mother used to before greed and malice poisoned her mind. She slid off her chair, ran around the table, and threw her arms tightly around Elias's neck.
May you like
Elias held her close, closing his eyes as the morning sun warmed the kitchen window. The flight from Denver had changed everything, but looking at his daughter laughing over a bowl of strawberries, he knew he would have flown through fire to get back to her.
Some families break you down, but the right love will cross oceans, break rules, and drop out of the sky at thirty thousand feet just to bring you home.
