Memories flooded my mind as I stepped out of the treehouse I had built with Levine, remembering all the talks we had shared. Our mother had mocked us for making it, but our father had always supported us. It was my safe place, a spot I could escape to whenever life felt too hard. The jungle around me came alive with the calls of animals and the hum of insects, and I loved looking up at the night sky, bathed in the soft, calming light of the moon.

Returning to the house wasn’t an ...