Chapter 12: The First Real Laugh
It happened on a warm Tuesday afternoon. Ryan was chasing Leo around the grassy backyard with a garden hose, both of them drenched. Leo tripped over a tree root and fell hard into the mud.
For a split second, Ryan froze, his heart dropping, expecting the traumatic, fearful crying that usually followed any accident. Instead, Leo sat up, completely covered in brown mud, looked at his dad, and burst into a loud, uncontrollable, belly-deep laugh.
It was a sound so pure, so completely unburdened by fear, that it brought sudden tears to Ryan's eyes. The boy’s soul was healing. The bright, hopeful light had officially returned to his young eyes.
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