As the rental car rolled to a stop on the dark road, her fear increased by the moment. She had been driving for hours, maybe too fast, maybe not fast enough. She wasn’t supposed to come back here. That was the whole point of leaving. But the email had been short and strange. "I found something you should see." No explanation. The house was still there, which honestly surprised her. She half expected it to be gone or burned down or something dramatic like that. She walked up to the door. Her hand hovered before knocking. She realized she didn’t know what she would say. He opened the door anyway. He looked at her like she was both expected and impossible. They stood there awkwardly for a second. “I didn’t think you’d actually come,” he said. She shrugged. “Me neither.” He led her inside and showed her the workshop. Everything was still there. The tools, the projects, the unfinished things. Including the machine. It was exactly where she had left it. “I never touched it,” he said. She stepped closer. Her fingerprints were probably still on it somewhere. She remembered the night she walked away. How easy it felt at the time. She thought she was choosing herself. Maybe she was. He picked up one of the parts and turned it over in his hands. He had stayed. He had waited. He had believed in it long after she stopped. And that was the moment he finally understood what it had cost him.