chapter 51
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The next morning, the sky was overcast—heavy and gray, like the city itself was holding its breath.
Elena sat at the bus stop, her hands curled over her bag, fingers tracing the zipper again and again. She wasn't listening to music. She wasn't checking her phone. She was just… waiting.
Waiting for what, she didn't know.
But her stomach twisted with the feeling that something had already shifted.
Like the silence had cracked.
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That day, she felt it more than ever.
The weight of his presence.
Not soft and distant anymore.
Close.
Sharp.
Watching.
The cafe doorbell jingled twice while she waited in line—no one came in.
She caught sight of a figure in the window reflection, tall and dark, before it vanished behind the alley.
And when she sat down to study in the library, a white envelope had already been placed in her book bag.
No name.
Just her name scrawled across the front in black ink.
Elena.
Her hands trembled as she opened it.
Inside was a single note.
> "You're not alone anymore."
She clutched it to her chest like a lifeline.
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That night, the air was cold enough to sting.
She hadn't meant to go outside. She hadn't planned to walk the long way home.
But something pulled her through the empty park.
Something deep inside her… aching.
She stopped beneath the streetlamp. The swing set creaked softly in the breeze. The world was too quiet.
Then she saw him.
Across the street.
Still. Shadowed.
Coat dark. Hair damp from the fog.
But it was him.
Her breath caught in her throat.
"Luca…"
She didn't say it aloud, but somehow—he looked up.
His eyes met hers across the distance.
She froze.
So did he.
He didn't move toward her.
He didn't run.
He just stood there, letting her see him, letting her know—he was real.
That he had never left.
And then, slowly, he turned and disappeared between the trees.
No words.
No promise.
But everything had changed.
He was back.
And this time, he wasn't hiding.
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