I ARRIVED AT MY BEACH HOUSE EXPECTING PEACE-YILUX

reshape later.

“That depends on you,” I said, because there was no other honest answer, no way to guide him without taking away the choice he needed to make.

He nodded slowly, absorbing it, and for a moment, he looked lost, not like a child, but like a man realizing he had been walking without looking.

“I don’t want to lose you,” he said, and this time continue reading …