Chapter 245: Therapy Session

RILEY I watched through the hospital windows as Lumina, Lyn, and Lynn pulled into the parking lot, their faces flushed with cold air and something else I couldn't quite identify. There was a lightness to their movements, a sense of completion that hadn't been there when they'd left earlier.   I didn't ask where they'd gone. I'd learned that adults had their own business, their own secrets, and that pressing for information usually led to uncomfortable conversations about things I wasn't ready to understand. Instead, I focused on what mattered -- Lake was still breathing, still fighting whatever battle was happening inside his unconscious mind, and our transport to Silver Creek had been finalized for tomorrow morning.   The antiseptic smell of the hospital had become as familiar as breathing, a chemical constant that followed me from room to room as I moved through my carefully structured routine. Three days since my collapse, two days since the "deal" with Lumina had been struck, and I