Chapter 4: Callused Hands
Vance needed a job to maintain their cover. He found work at a local carpentry shop run by an old man named Elias. Vance’s hands were scarred, knuckles permanently callused from years of violence. The first time Elias handed him a block of oak and a chisel, Vance hesitated.
""Wood remembers everything,"" Elias told him, noticing Vance’s tense posture. ""But it also forgives. You just have to shape it right.""
Vance threw himself into the work. He learned to sand, to carve, to build. He began making small things—a wooden bird, a jewelry box. Every evening, he brought a new creation home to Lily. Slowly, he was teaching himself that his hands could create, not just destroy.
