Arya’s left shoe moved less than an inch.
It was not a step.
It was barely even a motion.
Her heel stayed planted while the front edge of the shoe dragged toward the folded red rag Rowan had placed on the concrete.
But Rowan Hail reacted as if he had heard a whisper in a silent room.
“Again,” he said.
Celeste Whitmore stared at him.
“What happened?”
Rowan did not answer her.
His attention stayed on Arya.
“Don’t lift your leg.
Don’t try to walk.
Just let the foot move if it wants to.”
Arya’s breathing had become shallow.
“I can’t tell if I did that.”
“Good.”
She frowned.
“Good?”
“Because you weren’t forcing it.”
Celeste stepped closer.
The black credit card was still trapped between two fingers, forgotten now.
“What exactly do you think you saw?”
Rowan straightened slowly.
“A response.”
“She has responses,” Celeste said.
“She’s had every neurological test imaginable.”
“Then I’m not telling you anything her doctors don’t already know.”
That answer disarmed her more effectively than an argument would have.
Rowan wasn’t claiming a miracle.
He wasn’t claiming the specialists were fools.
He wasn’t even claiming he could help.
He simply crouched again and pointed toward Arya’s hands.
“You squeeze the crutches before your left foot moves.
Your shoulders come up.
Your right hip locks.
Then you try to command the whole step at once.”
Arya looked down at herself as if seeing the sequence for the first time.
“That’s how they taught me to stabilize.”
“Probably because you needed it.”
“So what’s wrong with it?”
“Maybe nothing.
But right now you’re doing five things to protect yourself before you ask the leg to do one.”
Celeste folded her arms.
“And your qualifications for this observation are?”
Rowan’s jaw tightened slightly.
“None that belong on a clinic wall.”
Celeste gave a humorless smile.
“Exactly.”
Arya expected Rowan to become defensive.
Instead, he reached for the red rag and picked it up.
“Then don’t listen to me.
Take the car.
The pedal is fixed.”
He turned toward the workbench.
Arya watched him walk away with the faintest unevenness in his right leg.
She had not noticed it before.
