Chapter One
NINA
Five Years Earlier
ITALY
The rain poured down in a relentless torrent, each drop a sharp echo of the pain that had consumed me. I stood alone by the window, watching the storm lash against the glass, a tempest which mirrored the turmoil within my heart.
It had been two weeks since Ronan left… since he shattered our world with words that still echoed in my mind like a cruel refrain.
I held him when he cried.
I wiped his tears when he needed comfort.
I picked him up when he couldn’t do so himself, and he stillleft.
Left me.
Left us.
Left our life.
Ronan and I were supposed to be forever. I felt it the moment we met in that crowded garden, our hands reaching for the same peony. From his touch alone, I knew he was different.
His laughter was like music, and his touch was a promise of endless nights tangled in whispered dreams.
But then the grief came, swift and merciless. Ronan’s family—his parents, his sister, his grandparents—all gone in a mere matter of years. The news came like a thunderclap on a clear day, shaking our foundations until there was nothing left but shattered fragments of what once was.
He retreated into silence, into a grief so deep I feared I would lose him too. I tried to reach him, to soothe the pain etched into the lines of his face, but he pushed me away with a force that left me gasping for air. His grayish-blue eyes, once so full of love, only held shadows I couldn’t penetrate. Nights turned into days, and still, he remained distant, a ghost haunting the halls of our shared apartment.
Then came that fateful night when the rain fell, but this time in our sheets. His footsteps were heavy, burdened with something unnamed. As he entered, his silhouette cut through the dim light seeping through the curtains.
Suddenly, the thing I feared the most became my reality.
“Ronan,” I whispered, my voice breaking the fragile silence between us. He didn’t respond or meet my gaze. He stood there like a figure cloaked in sorrow.
“I can’t do this anymore,” he said finally, his voice hoarse with unshed tears.
My heart clenched at his words, a thousand questions poised on the tip of my tongue.
What did he mean?
“Can’t do what?”
Ronan shook his head, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.
“I’m leaving, Nina,” he said, each word a knife piercing through the fragile shell of hope I clung to. “I have to.”
The room spun around me, the walls closing in as I struggled to comprehend the enormity of his words.
“L-leaving?” I repeated numbly, my mind grasping for any semblance of understanding.
He turned away, unable to face me with his shoulders hunched. “I’m sorry.” His voice was barely audible over the roar of the storm outside. “I can’t explain it. Just know I love you and I always will.”
“Ronan,please,” I pleaded, reaching out to touch his arm. He flinched at my touch, pulling away as if my fingertips burned with an unbearable heat.
“I can’t,” he whispered. “I can’t stay, baby.”
