A young girl flashes a hidden signal to a royal guard, prompting him to abruptly halt the parade in stunned disbelief

Will Lily need to testify? No, Sarah answered with relief. The evidence found on his devices is comprehensive. She’ll be spared that trauma.

They watched the children in comfortable silence before David spoke again. The police told us something else, he said, voice thick with emotion. Based on communications they found, he planned to transport Lily out of the country that evening if you hadn’t intervened when you did.

He couldn’t finish. The alternative outcome hung unspoken. A family forever broken, a child lost to unimaginable horror.

How did you know? Sarah asked. So many people passed by without noticing. What made you see what others missed? Vale watched his daughters laughing with Lily.

Part of it was training, recognising the distress signal, the patterns of control, but mostly… He paused. I saw her through a father’s eyes. And once you truly see a child in danger, there’s no unseeing it.

On the lawn, Lily placed a daisy-chain crown on Charlotte’s head. She looked up and caught Vale watching. Her smile, still healing but genuinely happy, conveyed what words couldn’t express.

Later, as Vale prepared to leave, Lily approached with something in her hand. I made this for you, she said, holding out a folded paper. Mummy helped me write it.

Vale opened the homemade card to find childish handwriting beside a drawing of a guard in a bearskin hat. The message read, Thank you for seeing me when I was invisible. He knelt to her level, emotion tightening his throat.

You were never invisible, Lily. Not to those who knew how to look. He glanced at his daughters, then back to the child whose life he’d helped save.

Promise me something. What? That you’ll remember how brave you were. The signal you made saved you, and saved other children too.

They found evidence he had hurt others before you. Lily nodded solemnly. I learned it at school…