Total pages in book: 17
Estimated words: 16116 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 81(@200wpm)___ 64(@250wpm)___ 54(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 16116 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 81(@200wpm)___ 64(@250wpm)___ 54(@300wpm)
"I was lost," I say loudly to the rangers. “This man,” I place my palm firmly on Wyatt’s arm. “Wyatt Stone, saved my life and offered me shelter. I stayed of my own free will. I want that on record."
Richard nods, jotting something in his notebook. Bill just looks sad.
"Take care of yourself, Wyatt," Bill says quietly.
Wyatt doesn't answer, just watches as my father takes my arm and leads me to the truck. I look back once, memorizing the sight of him standing on his porch, tall and solid and devastatingly alone, Cain and Abel standing on either side of him.
"Were you hypnotized? Drugged?" My mother's questions fill the suffocating space of the truck as we wind down the mountain roads. "I've read about these mountain men, how they can manipulate vulnerable young women, how they prey on the weak, the naïve—“
"Mom, stop." My voice sounds hollow even to my own ears. I am so freaking exhausted. "Wyatt is educated, intelligent, and kind. He helped me when I was lost. Everything else was my choice."
"But sweetheart, you're not yourself. The Emma we know wouldn't just disappear for nine days with some strange, bearded man in the woods."
That's the problem, I think but don't say. The Emma they know isn't the real me. The real me came alive in Wyatt's cabin, in his arms, under his quiet, attentive gaze.
"What about law school?" my father asks from the driver's seat. "Your applications are due next month."
The mention of law school—that predetermined future I've been dreading—sends a fresh wave of pain through me. This is probably why they're worried. Not for my safety but because of my applications. Typical. "I don't want to talk about it right now."
"You've thrown away nine days of study time," he continues as if I hadn't spoken. "You'll need to work twice as hard now to catch up."
I turn toward the window, watching the trees thin out as we descend from the mountains. Each mile takes me farther from Wyatt, from the life I glimpsed in those nine perfect days.
"He has money," my mother says suddenly. "Is that it? Did he promise to take care of you?"
The memory of our interrupted breakfast conversation brings fresh tears to my eyes. I blink them back furiously.
"You don't understand anything," I whisper.
They continue to talk, but I tune them out. They won't notice anyway. In our household, nobody cared about what I thought or what I wanted. It was always about them. I never really had a voice.
Only Wyatt ever listened to me, ever cared about my opinion.
Now the miles grow between us, and the farther I get, the more my heart breaks.
My dorm room feels like a foreign country. So cold and suffocating compared to the cabin. The moment my parents leave—after extracting promises from me to call them twice daily and focus on my studies—I collapse onto my bed, the grief finally overwhelming me.
It comes in waves, physical in its intensity. My chest constricts until breathing becomes an active struggle. My stomach clenches with nausea. My skin feels wrong somehow, too tight, too cold without Wyatt's touch.
I curl into myself, clutching my camera bag. Inside are hundreds of photos—proof that those nine days weren't a dream, that Wyatt and his cabin exist in the real world.
After hours of crying, I drag myself to my desk and connect my camera to my laptop with trembling hands. The photos load slowly—majestic mountain vistas, delicate wildflowers, Cain and Abel, curious wildlife and a handsome Elk looking majestically and empowered right into my lens.
And Wyatt. Of course Wyatt. Wyatt working with focused concentration. Wyatt looking up at the stars with wonder on his face. Wyatt smiling that rare, transformative smile that he seemed to reserve just for me.
I select a dozen images and send them to print. As they emerge from my printer, I arrange them on the floor around me—creating a circle of memories, surrounding myself with all I've lost.
The last photo prints—Wyatt standing on his porch at sunrise, light gilding his profile as he looks out over the mountains. I took it yesterday morning, never imagining it would be my last full day with him.
Something breaks inside me. My legs give out and I collapse to the floor amid the photos, sobs tearing from my throat. I curl around the image of Wyatt, pressing it to my heart as if I could somehow absorb him into myself, keep him with me.
The pain is unbearable—physical, visceral. My perfect life with him feels simultaneously like a distant dream and more real than the room around me. The memory of his touch, his voice calling me "baby," the safety of his arms—it all crashes over me in waves of agonizing loss.
"I'll come back," I whisper to his photograph. "I'll come back to you."
But in this moment, surrounded by images of everything I've lost, those words feel hollow. Campus life stretches before me like a prison sentence, each day taking me further from the person I became in those nine precious days—the real Emma, the one Wyatt saw.