Chapter 12
The flight attendant‘ s announcement echoed overhead, signaling the plane‘ s imminent departure.
Asteria didn’t reply. Instead, she powered off her phone, leaned back, and closed her eyes. Exhaustion wrapped around her like a blanket, pulling her into a deep,
unbroken sleep. It was the kind of rest she hadn’t known in years, perhaps because her weary heart had finally reached its limit.
Yet, even in dreams, Primo‘ s image. lingered like a haunting melody.
At seven, they had played house beneath the shade of an old tree. Primo had grinned from ear to ear, declaring, “I’m the groom, and you‘ re the prettiest bride.”
At eighteen, they had made a promise. beneath a star–filled sky. Holding her hand with a steady grip, Primo had vowed,
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“Asteria, I swear I’ll work hard to give you the grandest wedding. You won’t just be the most beautiful bride but the happiest woman alive.”
His words echoed through her dreams, a bittersweet refrain of a love that once burned bright.
It was that promise, made when they were eighteen, that had made Asteria wait so eagerly for their wedding day. She had clung to it, unable to let go, unwilling to trust anyone else to fulfill the dream they had once shared. She had wanted to give everything she had to make that youthful promise a reality.
But, like all things tied to time, youthful love had faded. The hopes of their youth had slowly turned to regrets.
And despite everything, she and Primo could never reach the ending they once imagined.
When Asteria awoke, the ache in her head
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had dulled, but a different kind of weight pressed on her chest. She stared out at the sea of clouds below, and an unsettling thought crept into her mind.
When had everything changed between her and Primo? Was it before Yesha appeared, or did the shift come after?
She couldn’t make sense of it, and truthfully, she didn’t want to. Primo had once filled every corner of her life, every breath she took. He had been her past, her present, and she had believed her future.
No matter how committed she had been, letting go of someone like him was a pain so raw that it felt as if her very bones were being torn from her.
So, even after stepping off the plane, Asteria didn’t find the strength to unlock her phone.
Standing on the unfamiliar street in a foreign country, her sense of direction was lost, and she was jolted from her thoughts
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by a voice she knew too well.
“Asteria!”
Among a crowd of blond, blue–eyed foreigners, her mother waved excitedly, her arms flailing in the air like a beacon. The joy in her face was undeniable as she hurried toward Asteria, her high heels clicking rhythmically against the pavement.
With a swift, heartwarming embrace, her mother pulled her close.
“You‘ ve changed so much! I almost didn’t recognize you…”
“How wonderful! You‘ ve grown taller… and become even more beautiful.”
Her mother, with a face full of love, gently caressed Asteria‘ s cheek as though
searching for the lost years in the familiar contours of her face.
Asteria gazed at her mother with tear–filled eyes, her heart swelling with emotions.
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After all this time, they had finally broken through the distance, the screen that had separated them for so long, and they could now feel the warmth of each other’s
touch.
