Just two people learning how to be together without all of that.
Vaughn works remotely when he can get signal, managing his company from a laptop at the kitchen table instead of a corner office overlooking the city.
He has video calls with his CFO and board members and key partners, his shirt and tie visible on camera while below the desk he's wearing sweatpants and wool socks because the Montana mornings are cold.
Rebuilding. Recovering from the Consortium's retaliation.
Slowly, clawing back what they tried to take from him.
I’ve been cooking more lately.
I never had to back at the estate.
But here, it's just us.
Just Vaughn and me and Callum, and Callum can't do everything.
So I learn how to make some damn good meals.
We take walks in the forest surrounding the house.
Long hikes through terrain.
Everything here is bigger, wilder, more dramatic.
Ancient trees and rocky outcroppings and sudden meadows filled with wildflowers.
Views that stretch for miles without a single building or road or sign of human presence.
Like the landscape itself is freedom.
We talk. Actually talk. About everything and nothing.
About the Sanctuary and my childhood and Elder Jacob's plans for me.
About Vaughn's father's death and the years after and what drove him to seek power so desperately.
We learn from each other without the structure of training.
Without commands and compliance and captor-captive dynamics.
Without the script we'd been following for those two months.
Learning who we are when we're just Vaughn and Eden.
Just two people trying to build something real from a foundation of darkness.
It's strange. Disorienting at first.
Sometimes I don't know how to be with him when he's not commanding me, when there's no structure telling me what to do or how to respond or what's expected of me.
Don't know how to navigate a relationship built on choice instead of control.
But we figure it out together. One awkward conversation at a time.
One moment of confusion navigated and resolved.
One day building on the previous until gradually, almost imperceptibly, it starts to feel natural.
