Willow did not tell Zane where they were going.
Not because she wanted drama, and not because she enjoyed secrecy, but because the decision had formed slowly and privately, the way real choices did, without announcement. The house had stayed with her since the first time she saw it, not as fantasy or aspiration, but as a quiet certainty that refused to be dismissed. It had felt right in a way that did not require justification, and she had learned to trust that instinct even when it made other people uncomfortable.
She framed the drive casually, a detour, a place she wanted him to see before they committed to anything else. Zane accepted that without question, trusting the direction of her thinking even when he did not yet see the destination. He had learned that Willow did not bring him into spaces lightly, and that when she did, it was because she intended to stay.
