She didn't need to. There would be no dramatic confrontation. No desperate struggle. No moment Lara could fight and win.
This was something far more dangerous.
Moira was patient. Deliberate. She would step in little by little.
Reappear in Shay's life not as a threat but as something familiar. Something rightful.
She would speak softly. Act gently. Be present. Be Consistent. Be reliable.
Everything she hadn't been before she would become now.
And Shay…
Shay would respond. Of course she would. She was just a child.
A child who had grown up with an absence she didn't fully understand—only felt.
A quiet hunger. A missing piece she couldn't name.
Children reached for warmth. For belonging. For the word mother— no matter how long it had been absent. No matter how unfamiliar it felt at first.
Even if she resisted. Even if she pulled away. That wouldn't last.
Because something deeper would answer eventually.
It always did.
Lara exhaled softly.
I know that… better than anyone.
