Salem had given up speaking for years and no one in her own flesh and blood family had noticed. And yet she had gone off her regular routine for a few days, and this man, the one who confused the hell out of her, the one who wasn’t a friend, wasn’t a foe, wasn’t anything but something, the one who inspired so many ugly, not so ugly, feelings in her … he noticed. He noticed her breaking her pattern. He noticed her being off. He noticed her looking tired. She hadn’t said a word to anyone about the things weighing her down, and yet, somehow, he had noticed it.
