Gérard stood alone in the garden, a place he instinctively drifted to whenever the weight of his thoughts grew too heavy. There was something about the quiet here something that stilled the chaos in his mind and gave him room to breathe.
It hadn't always been like this.
Once, this stretch of land had been nothing but neglected earth dry, lifeless, forgotten. No one had cared enough to tend to it. No one except her. She had taken this barren space and, with patience and gentle devotion, transformed it into something almost sacred. Every bloom that now swayed in the breeze had been planted by her hands, nurtured with care. She had turned ruin into beauty… and in doing so, created a sanctuary he hadn't known he needed.
His sanctuary.
Memories surfaced unbidden of quiet conversations beneath open skies, of her voice soft with comfort as she soothed wounds he never spoke aloud. She had been there for him in ways no one else ever had.
She had taught him how to feel again… how to love.
