**Chapter 16: Emotional Healing Begins**
We didn’t go back to the lodge right away.
Victor took a sharp turn onto a dirt road I’d never seen, the bike rumbling deep into the mountains until the trees parted and a small lake appeared, mirror-still under the late morning sun. No cabins. No roads. Just water, stone, and sky.
He cut the engine.
For a long moment we just sat there, my arms still around his waist, the adrenaline of the morning slowly draining out of us.
Victor spoke first, voice low. “Come with me.”
He led me down a narrow path to a flat rock that jutted over the water. Wildflowers grew in the cracks—tiny purple and white stars I’d never noticed before. He sat, pulled me down between his legs, and wrapped his arms around me from behind.
We didn’t talk for a long time.
I
