Bella didn’t bark at the elephants, didn’t spook at parrots shrieking, didn’t even flinch when the lions rumbled low in their throats. She only watched with solemn eyes, tilting her head as if listening to something the rest of them had missed.
Ethan found that gaze unsettling, not because it frightened him, but because it seemed to weigh him, to measure his silences more than his words. As days bled into weeks, Bella mapped his routine. She knew when to step aside as he hauled a hose, when to trot at his heel as he carried feed buckets, when to curl herself near the staff entrance to wait.