A year had passed.
Elara now worked as a secretary at a newly founded IT company in the city. Her days followed a calm rhythm with emails in the morning, reports after lunch, and quiet evenings spent polishing proposals. It was a simpler life, steady and predictable, and she was grateful for it.
She had met Caleb Reid a year ago while searching for a full-time job. Back then, the job market was unforgiving. Every company wanted candidates with years of experience, and interview after interview ended the same way with polite smiles, empty promises, and no offers.
Caleb had been the one exception.
He was her former classmate from college with a sharp mind and an impossible dream, he had taken a bold leap to start his own IT firm. When he heard she was struggling to find a position, he invited her to support his growing team.
Her new boss was calm under pressure, thoughtful, and respectful, a steady presence in her new life. Working for him gave her purpose again, a life she could manage without fear of the past catching up to her.
But some nights, when she paused between tasks or walked home under the quiet glow of the streetlights, her thoughts drifted back to Adrian.
How he used to call her name.
How he held her hand when he could not see.
How he said he was happy because she was there.
Those memories surfaced without permission, warm but painful.
Whenever they did, she would take a slow breath and remind herself:
If Adrian was healthy, if he eventually married Luna, if he laughed again, then she should be happy for him.
That was the choice she had made and the only choice she could live with. Even if a small part of her heart still ached for what they once had.
*****
That morning, Caleb stepped out of his office, a rare spark of excitement in his eyes.
"Elara, do you know who just contacted us?" he asked, resting one hand on her desk.
She looked up from her computer, smiling faintly. "You know I don't like guessing games. Who is it?"
"Vale's," he said simply.
The name hit her like a shock of cold water. Her fingers stilled on the keyboard.
"Vale's?" she repeated softly.
Caleb nodded, still unaware of the shift in her expression. "Vale Corporation. They're looking for a potential firm to handle their online shopping platform and internal security software. It's huge for us, Elara, the kind of project that could change everything."
She forced a small smile. "That's… great news."
"They asked for a meeting next week," Caleb went on. "If it goes well, we'll be set for the year."
He walked off, already talking about budgets and schedules, but Elara stayed frozen in her seat.
Vale Corporation.
The name echoed again in her mind, the one she had avoided for so long, the one she thought she had finally left behind.
*****
Since waking up in the hospital, Adrian Vale had lived with an emptiness he could not name. His body had healed, but something deeper had not. He often felt as though a part of himself had been carved away and left in a place he could no longer reach.
Two years slipped by like that. The company grew, his parents aged, and life moved forward yet he carried the hollow sense that something precious had been lost in the fog of memory.
Sometimes, late at night, he wondered what had happened during those missing years after the first accident. He had asked Rowen once, but his friend had only said quietly, "It was a difficult time. Maybe it's better not to remember."
Adrian had stopped asking after that, but the unease never left him. He grew colder, shorter with his words, and his temper surfaced more often than before.
Even Luna could not reach him.
For the first few months after his recovery, they were loving as usual. Luna held his hand when they walked, cooked for him on weekends, and stayed by his side during his checkups. On the surface, they looked like a couple who had survived hardship and come out stronger.
But beneath that calm surface, something was wrong.
There was one question Adrian could never shake from his mind. One day, he finally asked her.
"What happened three years ago? After the accident?"
Luna stiffened every time. She would smile lightly, brush his hair back, and say, "Let's not think about the past. What matters is now."
But she never gave him an answer.
And the more she avoided the topic, the colder he felt inside.
Something was missing, a piece of his life he could not name yet felt deep in his bones. He couldn't explain the emptiness, nor the quiet irritation that rose whenever Luna dodged his questions. He love her but now… the feeling felt different and distant.
Over time, their conversations grew shorter, their smiles more forced, and even their embraces began to feel hollow.
Luna tried to stay patient, gentle as always. But his distance wore her down, little by little.
Six months later, she left quietly, without tears or any fights. As if she had known all along that it was only a matter of time.
And Adrian let her go without asking her to stay.
After that, Adrian threw himself into work. Meetings, deadlines, expansion plans, and anything else he could use to drown out the silence that haunted him when the office lights went out. The busier he became, the less time he had to think, yet the emptiness never faded.
On the other hand, Rowen often told Emi in private, "I miss the Adrian who used to laugh. The one who softened when Elara was around."
Emi glanced up from the bottle she was preparing for their baby. "Is he still the same at the office?" she asked quietly.
Rowen ran a tired hand through his hair. "Worse, actually. He is colder than before. He gets irritated easily. Some days he barely says a word, and on others he snaps at people without meaning to."
Emi's brows knitted in concern. "He must feel very alone. Does he still ask about the past?"
"Not anymore," Rowen replied. "He stopped asking a few months ago. I think he gave up. But I can tell something still bothers him. It is like he is searching for something he cannot name."
Emi scrolled slowly through the photos on her phone, her thumb pausing when a familiar image filled the screen. It was a group picture taken years ago at the spring resort. Adrian stood beside Elara, smiling with a rare and unguarded softness. There was a warmth in his eyes she hadn't seen in a long time, a version of him that now felt like a distant memory.
"He looked happy then," Emi murmured. "He was different when Elara was around. Lighter."
Rowen nodded. "He was. I have never seen him care for anyone the way he cared for her. I miss that side of him. It feels like it disappeared the day she left."
Emi touched his arm gently. "Do you think Elara still thinks of him?"
"Maybe," Rowen said. "But she is trying to stay away for his sake. She believes she made the right choice."
Emi sighed. "If only they knew how much they changed each other."
Rowen glanced again at the photo. "I hope one day he finds that version of himself again."