In truth, Sofia was Isabella’s only companion.
She tried everything to help the girl open up. She read stories to her, they drew pictures together, they played with dolls. Sometimes Isabella smiled, her eyes lighting up with quiet joy—but not a single sound ever left her lips.
Sofia felt a growing bond with the child. A tenderness that painfully reminded her of her own daughter, Luna. The same slight tilt of the head. The same curious brightness in her gaze.
One evening—the tenth night since Sofia had arrived—the mansion was wrapped in its usual suffocating silence. Sofia was finishing up in the kitchen, the only place in the house that felt somewhat warm.
Then suddenly, a sound.
A whisper.
It wasn’t the wind slipping through a loose window. It wasn’t the creak of aging wood. It was a voice.
A child’s voice.
Sofia froze, the dishcloth clenched tightly in her hand. Had she imagined it? Had she truly heard…?
The sound came again. This time it formed a melody. Soft and gentle, but unmistakable.
A lullaby.
Sofia’s heart jolted violently, pounding hard against her ribs.
It was that song.
The very lullaby she used to sing to little Luna every night before bed. The same melody her grandmother— the only musician in the family—had created long ago.
No one else knew it.
Her legs began moving before she could think, driven by fear and a sudden surge of desperate hope. She hurried up the grand marble staircase, her breathing nearly drowned out by the frantic pounding of her heart.
The melody floated down the hallway of the bedrooms.
From Isabella’s room.
She approached slowly, each step heavy with tension. Isabella’s bedroom door was slightly open, leaving a narrow crack where the soft glow of a bedside lamp spilled into the corridor.
Now the voice was clear.
Unmistakable.
A little girl’s voice… singing.
“Sleep, my little moon, my shooting star, may sleep take you to a world of peace…”
Every word was exact. Every note perfectly familiar.
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