Chapter 165 Chapter 165

Chapter 165 Chapter 165
The drive from her parents’ house took longer than Mia expected. Mark had insisted on taking them as far as the main junction outside town, where the smaller roads met the clearer highway. He unloaded their bags himself, checked the boot on Mia’s leg one more time, and made her promise again to text when she was inside the mansion. Laura hugged her hard enough to leave the scent of the kitchen on her clothes. Sophia stood a little to the side with her duffel, giving them space for the goodbye without making it heavier than it needed to be.

When the private car finally pulled up, it was exactly the kind of vehicle Victoria preferred for transfers dark, unmarked, windows tinted deep enough that the outside world became a suggestion. The rear door opened before the car had fully stopped. Victoria stepped out, tablet already in one hand, expression composed and alert.
“You’re on time.” She glanced at Mia’s boot, then at the insulated bag in her hand.
“How’s the leg?”
“Sore but manageable.”
“And the roads on your side?”
“Clear enough. My dad checked three times before he let us leave.”
Victoria gave a short nod and gestured toward the open door. “Both of you in. We’ll drop Sophia first, then continue to the house. I’ve already adjusted the gate schedule.”
Sophia climbed in first, sliding across the back seat. Mia followed more carefully, guiding the boot in before settling against the leather. Victoria closed the door, spoke briefly to the driver, and took the seat facing them as the car pulled away from the junction and her parents’ truck. For a few minutes no one spoke. The highway moved past the tinted glass in a smooth blur. Then Sophia leaned forward slightly, elbows on her knees, and looked at Victoria with open curiosity.
“So,” Sophia said. “How bad was it while we were gone? Be honest, I can take it.”
Victoria considered her, then answered in the same precise tone she used for briefings. “The sleeping medication took longer to clear than the doctor initially estimated. Kai was functional by last night awake, eating, walking without assistance but still not fully sharp. This morning he was clearer. He’s at the house. Security has been completely rewritten around unauthorized visitors. Veronica’s access is permanently revoked at every level.”
Mia watched her face. “Has he asked about me?”
“Yes, more than once. He knows you’re on your way.”
Sophia sat back, satisfied for the moment. “Good because if you’d said he was still face-down in a pillow I was going to demand we turn around and get more soup.”
Victoria’s mouth almost twitched. “The soup is noted. I’m sure it will be appreciated.”

The conversation shifted after that into a lighter recounting of the trip. Sophia took the lead, describing the hike and the slip with dramatic hand gestures that made Mia shake her head. She told Victoria about Mark’s game nights and Laura’s refusal to let anyone leave a table hungry. She left out the middle-of-the-night silhouette and the way Mia had rushed toward it thinking it was Kai. Some things didn’t need to travel further than the two of them.
Mia added quieter details when Sophia paused the way the house had smelled after the rain, the sound of her father’s voice reading old stories, the ordinary relief of sitting in a kitchen that didn’t care about sponsors or cameras. Victoria listened without interrupting, occasionally making a small note on her tablet, though Mia suspected she wasn’t writing anything essential.
“You needed the time away,” Victoria said eventually. “Even with the complications. It shows.”
Mia looked out the window. “It helped until it didn’t. Then it helped again.”
Sophia reached over and briefly squeezed her wrist. “She’s being modest. She actually laughed a few times. Real ones, I counted.”

The car slowed as they entered the denser part of the city. Buildings rose higher. Traffic thickened and then thinned again as the driver took a familiar series of turns toward Sophia’s neighborhood. When they stopped in front of her building, Sophia gathered her bag and paused with one hand on the door handle.
“Text me when you’re inside and you’ve actually seen him,” she said to Mia. “Not a vague ‘I’m fine.’ A real update.”
“I will.”
Sophia looked at Victoria. “Take care of her and him. And if Veronica tries anything else, call me. I have energy and no patience left for her.”
“Noted,” Victoria said.
Sophia stepped out, then leaned back in for a second to meet Mia’s eyes. “You’ve got this. Even the anxious part.”

The door closed and the car pulled away. Mia watched her friend climb the steps of the building until the angle of the street took her out of view. The back seat felt larger without her. Victoria said something quiet to the driver, and the route shifted toward the final stretch of road that led to the mansion.
Mia’s hands settled in her lap. The closer they got, the more the earlier lightness from the sunny morning began to tighten into something else. She had spent days waiting to see him worrying, calling, watching him fail to speak on a video screen while the medication still held him under. Now the gates were minutes away, and the reality of standing in front of him again after everything sat heavy in her chest.
Victoria noticed the shift. “You’re quiet.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re anxious.” Victoria’s voice stayed matter-of-fact. “That’s expected, you’ve been separated during a period of significant stress on both sides. He’s been through a medical event and you’ve been injured and stranded. The first face-to-face moment after that is rarely simple.”
Mia looked down at the insulated bag of soup on the seat beside her. “I don’t know what I’m walking into. If he’s still foggy. If he’s angry about Veronica. If he’s just tired and doesn’t want company.”
“He’s been asking for you since he was coherent enough to form the question,”
Victoria said. “That hasn’t changed. The rest you can assess when you’re in the room with him.”

The car turned onto the private road. Trees closed in on both sides. Mia’s pulse picked up in a steady, annoying rhythm. She adjusted the boot out of habit, smoothed the front of her shirt, then stopped herself when she realized what she was doing.
Victoria’s tablet chimed once. She glanced at it. “Security has confirmed the gate is clear. No other visitors on the property, he’s upstairs.”
Mia nodded and the words didn’t settle the feeling in her chest. They only made the next few minutes feel more inevitable.
The gates appeared ahead, tall and dark against the late morning light. The car slowed as the security team verified the vehicle and opened the way. Mia watched the familiar stretch of driveway unfold, the mansion rising at the end of it, and felt the full weight of the return land at once the soup in the bag beside her, the ache in her leg, the days of distance, and the man waiting somewhere inside who had spent the last stretch of time fighting his way out of a chemical sleep she hadn’t been there to help him through.

The car stopped under the portico. Victoria opened the door and stepped out first. Mia followed more slowly, boot careful on the stone, the insulated bag in one hand and her suitcase handle in the other. The front doors of the house stood open and somewhere beyond them, Kai was awake, she drew a short breath, steadying herself against the sudden rush of nerves, and stepped inside.