Echoes Between Us

⸻

Chapter Four: Echoes Between Us

The next morning, Elena woke before the sun.

The house was still. Too still. It was the kind of silence that came after grief, after loss, when the world hadn’t caught up with the fact that someone was gone. Her father’s absence hung in the walls like a shadow.

She made her way downstairs barefoot, the wooden steps cold against her skin. In the kitchen, a box of old mail sat on the table, delivered after his death by a neighbor who thought she might want it. Most of it was junk.

But one envelope stood out.

It was addressed to her in her father’s handwriting—stiff and uneven from years of arthritis. She stared at it for several seconds, hesitant to touch it.

Finally, she opened it.

Elena,

If you’re reading this, I’m gone. I never knew how to be soft with you, and for that, I’m sorry. Your mother leaving broke something in me, but that was never your fault. I know I never said it, but I was proud of you. For leaving. For surviving.

Don’t waste your life waiting to feel ready. If something scares you, it’s probably worth doing.

Especially love.

— Dad

Her chest tightened. The last person she expected understanding from—especially about Adrian—was her father. And yet here he was, offering wisdom in death he never could in life.

She pressed the letter to her chest and closed her eyes.

⸻

By noon, the sun had broken through the clouds for the first time in days, casting gold over the harbor. Elena sat at her father’s old desk in the study, flipping through his notebooks. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for—maybe pieces of him, or maybe pieces of herself.

A knock at the door startled her.

She opened it to find Lena Dorsey, her former best friend—until Elena left without saying goodbye. Lena stood on the porch, arms crossed, sunglasses perched on her head, guarded but not cruel.

“Well,” Lena said. “Look who finally decided to come home.”

“Lena,” Elena breathed. “I didn’t think—”

“You didn’t think, period,” Lena snapped, then sighed. “I’m not here to yell. I just… I figured you’d want to know before it hit the gossip circuit.”

Elena blinked. “Know what?”

Lena hesitated. “Adrian’s not exactly single.”

A beat of silence passed like a thunderclap.

“What?”

“He’s been seeing someone. Off and on. Her name’s Hailey Matthews. Real estate agent. Blonde. Polite enough when she’s not glaring.”

Elena’s stomach dropped.

“He didn’t mention her,” she said quietly.

“Doesn’t surprise me. Things between them were… complicated. Always have been.” Lena’s gaze softened. “He never really moved on, Elena. Even when he tried.”

Elena stepped back, needing the doorframe to steady her.

Lena reached out, her voice gentler now. “I’m not here to make you feel guilty. I just didn’t want you walking into a fire without knowing it’s lit.”

Elena nodded slowly. “Thanks for the warning.”

Lena turned to go, then paused. “You’re not the only one who regrets how things ended. But maybe regret isn’t enough anymore.”

⸻

Later That Afternoon

Adrian was already at the harbor when she arrived.

This time, there was no pretense, no hesitation. Just a pull—magnetic, inevitable.

He smiled when he saw her, but it faded quickly.

“You look like you didn’t sleep,” he said.

“I didn’t.”

“Same.”

She stood in front of him, searching his face. “You should’ve told me.”

He stilled. “About Hailey.”

“So it’s true?”

“Yes. But it’s… over. Or it was. I don’t know.”

“Do you love her?”

“No,” he said without blinking. “But I tried.”

That hurt more than she expected.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I didn’t want you to think I’d stopped loving you.”

Elena looked away, the wind whipping her hair across her face.

“She told me once,” he continued, voice rough, “that I only had half a heart left to give. She wasn’t wrong. You had the rest of it. You still do.”

Tears stung Elena’s eyes.

“Adrian, this isn’t just about the past anymore. It’s about now. And I don’t want to be a maybe. I don’t want to be your second chance only because the first didn’t work.”

He stepped closer, his voice lower. “You were never second. You were everything. I only tried with someone else because I didn’t think you were ever coming back.”

“I wasn’t,” she admitted. “Until I realized everything I was running from was still in me.”

Adrian reached out, fingers brushing her cheek. “Do you still want this? After everything?”

She closed her eyes. “More than anything.”

“Then stay.”

She looked up at him, terrified. “And what if it all falls apart again?”

“Then we rebuild,” he whispered. “Together.”

⸻

They stood there, on the edge of the world, between everything they’d been and everything they still could be.

And for the first time in seven years, Elena didn’t feel like she was falling alone.