Leo didn’t answer immediately.
“Outside,” he said.
Vague.
But accurate.
Daniel pushed further.
“Who taught you?”
Leo shook his head.
“No one teaches you. You just… don’t get caught.”
That confirmed it.
He wasn’t just surviving.
He had adapted.
That introduced a new variable.
Skill.
Not academic.
Not structured.
Functional.
That night, Emily did not sleep early.
She stayed awake.
Waiting.
“For what?” Daniel asked.
“For him,” she said.
Dependency forming.
Risk identified.
Dependency can heal.
Or replace one problem with another.
