Chapter 1 – The Letter
Evelyn Carter had moved on. Or at least, that's what she kept telling herself. Seven years had passed since Adrian Hale had disappeared from her life. No goodbye, no explanation, just gone. She had waited for answers, hoping he would come back, but they never came. So, she stopped waiting.
Now, her life was different. She was engaged to Michael, a man who loved her and treated her with kindness. She had a good job, and the future seemed secure and comfortable. But everything changed the moment she saw the letter.
It was sitting on her doorstep when she got home, just a plain white envelope with no return address. Evelyn bent down and picked it up, feeling a strange unease settle deep in her chest. She couldn't explain it, but something about it made her feel uneasy, as if the past was coming back to haunt her.
Then she saw the handwriting. Her fingers tightened around the paper as her heart skipped a beat. No. It couldn't be. She hadn't seen this handwriting in years, but she knew it instantly. The familiar scrawl, the way the letters seemed to speak to her in a language only they shared. Her hands shook as she opened the envelope, her breath hitching in her throat.
Inside was a single piece of paper. One sentence.
"Evelyn, I never meant to leave you."
Her heart stopped. The letter slipped from her fingers, floating down to the floor, forgotten for a moment as her entire world seemed to freeze. She bent down, her breath coming in short, uneven gasps, the weight of those words hitting her like a wave crashing against the shore.
This wasn't possible. Adrian was gone. He had been gone for seven years. So why did it feel like he had just walked back into her life? Why, after all this time, did his words still hurt? Why did it feel like a piece of her had just been ripped open again?
She stood there, frozen, unable to move or think clearly, as the silence of the moment pressed down on her.